Extremely Nonperturbative Nonlinearities in GaAs Driven by Atomically Strong Terahertz Fields in Gold Metamaterials

Abstract

Terahertz near fields of gold metamaterials resonant at a frequency of $0.88\mathrm{THz}$ allow us to enter an extreme limit of non-perturbative ultrafast THz electronics: Fields reaching a ponderomotive energy in the keV range are exploited to drive nondestructive, quasi-static interband tunneling and impact ionization in undoped bulk GaAs, injecting electron-hole plasmas with densities in excess of $10^{19}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$. This process causes bright luminescence at energies up to $0.5\mathrm{eV}$ above the band gap and induces a complete switch-off of the metamaterial resonance accompanied by self-amplitude modulation of transmitted few-cycle THz transients. Our results pave the way towards highly nonlinear THz optics and optoelectronic nanocircuitry with sub-picosecond switching times.

Published in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (9)

• Sub-cycle control of terahertz high-harmonic generation by dynamical Bloch oscillations
• Single-cycle THz pulses with amplitudes exceeding 1 MV/cm generated by optical rectification in LiNbO3
• Molecular Orientation by Intense Single Cycle THz Pulses
• Impact ionization in InSb probed by THz-pump THz-probe spectroscopy
• Observation of Nonequilibrium Carrier Distribution in Ge, Si and GaAs by Terahertz-pump--Terahertz-probe Measurements
• Nonlinear terahertz metamaterials via field-enhanced carrier dynamics in GaAs
• Non-perturbative Interband Response of InSb Driven Off-resonantly by Few-cycle Electromagnetic Transients
• Ambipolar diffusion of photo-excited carriers in bulk GaAs
• Observation of Coulomb-Assisted Dipole-Forbidden Intraexciton Transitions in Semiconductors

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Temporal and spectral fingerprints of ultrafast all-coherent spin switching
• THz pulses over 50 millijoules generated from relativistic picosecond laser-plasma interactions
• Terahertz-driven Luminescence and Colossal Stark Effect in CdSe:CdS Colloidal Quantum Dots
• Tailored subcycle nonlinearities of ultrastrong light-matter coupling
• Zener Tunneling Breakdown in Phase-Change Materials Revealed by Intense Terahertz Pulses
• Nonlinear Charge Transport in InGaAs Nanowires at Terahertz Frequencies
• Floquet spin states in OLEDs
• Roles of band gap and Kane electronic dispersion in the THz-frequency nonlinear optical response in HgCdTe
• Strong-Field Terahertz Control of Plasmon Induced Opacity in Photoexcited Metamaterial
• Impact ionization induced by terahertz radiation in HgTe quantum wells of critical thickness
• Influence of atomic-scale defects on coherent phonon excitations by THz near fields in an STM
• Melting of magnetic order in ${\mathrm{NaOsO}}_3$ by fs laser pulses
• Anomalous visualization of sub-2 THz photons on standard silicon CCD and COMS sensors