Increased terahertz emission from thermally treated GaSb

We report on the terahertz emission from GaSb surfaces with modified surface stochiometry. While very weak emission is observed from virgin GaSb wafers, the emission is significantly increased by a single thermal treatment of the wafers. Optimum emission is observed for 500 °C thermal annealing. The reason for the THz emission is a surface electric field induced by thermal decomposition of the surface as corroborated by Raman spectroscopy.