We explore the effects of surfactant-mediated epitaxy on the structural, electrical, and optical properties of fast metal-semiconductor superlattice photoconductors. Specifically, application of a bismuth flux during growth was found to significantly improve the properties of superlattices of LuAs nanoparticles embedded in In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As. These improvements are attributed to the enhanced structural quality of the overgrown InGaAs over the LuAs nanoparticles. The use of bismuth enabled a 30% increase in the number of monolayers of LuAs that could be deposited before the InGaAs overgrowth degraded. Dark resistivity increased by up to $15Â while carrier mobility remained over 2300 cm 2 /V-s and carrier lifetimes were reduced by >2Â at comparable levels of LuAs deposition. These findings demonstrate that surfactant-mediated epitaxy is a promising approach to enhance the properties of ultrafast photoconductors for terahert generation.
We report the growth and characterization of nearly lattice-matched LuAs/GaAs heterostructures. Electrical conductivity, optical transmission, and reflectivity measurements of epitaxial LuAs films indicate that LuAs is semimetallic, with a room-temperature resistivity of 90 μΩ cm. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy confirms that LuAs nucleates as self-assembled nanoparticles, which can be overgrown with high-quality GaAs. The growth and material properties are very similar to those of the more established ErAs/GaAs system; however, we observe important differences in the magnitude and wavelength of the peak optical transparency, making LuAs superior for certain device applications, particularly for thick epitaxially embedded Ohmic contacts that are transparent in the near-IR telecommunications window around 1.3 μm.
We present a comprehensive analysis of terahertz radiation from large area plasmonic photoconductive emitters in relation with characteristics of device substrate. Specifically, we investigate the radiation properties of large area plasmonic photoconductive emitters fabricated on GaAs substrates that exhibit short carrier lifetimes through low-temperature substrate growth and through epitaxially embedded rare-earth arsenide (ErAs and LuAs) nanoparticles in superlattice structures. Our analysis indicates that the utilized substrate composition and growth process for achieving short carrier lifetimes are crucial in determining substrate resistivity, carrier drift velocity, and carrier lifetime, which directly impact optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiency, radiation power, radiation bandwidth, and reliability of large area plasmonic photoconductive emitters.
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