Compact and ultra-efficient broadband plasmonic terahertz field detector.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31804476.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-13490-x and PMC identifier 6895079.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Terahertz sources and detectors have enabled numerous new applications from medical to communications. Yet, most efficient terahertz detection schemes rely on complex free-space optics and typically require high-power lasers as local oscillators. Here, we demonstrate a fiber-coupled, monolithic plasmonic terahertz field detector on a silicon-photonics platform featuring a detection bandwidth of 2.5 THz with a 65 dB dynamical range. The terahertz wave is measured through its nonlinear mixing with an optical probe pulse with an average power of only 63 nW. The high efficiency of the scheme relies on the extreme confinement of the terahertz field to a small volume of 10<sup>-8</sup>(λ<sub>THz</sub>/2)<sup>3</sup>. Additionally, on-chip guided plasmonic probe beams sample the terahertz signal efficiently in this volume. The approach results in an extremely short interaction length of only 5 μm, which eliminates the need for phase matching and shows the highest conversion efficiency per unit length up to date.