Milliwatt terahertz harmonic generation from topological insulator metamaterials

Abstract

Achieving efficient, high-power harmonic generation in the terahertz spectral domain has technological applications, for example in sixth generation (6G) communication networks. Massless Dirac fermions possess extremely large terahertz nonlinear susceptibilities and harmonic conversion efficiencies. However, the observed maximum generated harmonic power is limited, because of saturation effects at increasing incident powers, as shown recently for graphene. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature terahertz harmonic generation in a Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ topological insulator and topological-insulator-grating metamaterial structures with surface-selective terahertz field enhancement. We obtain a third-harmonic power approaching the milliwatt range for an incident power of 75 mW - an improvement by two orders of magnitude compared to a benchmarked graphene sample. We establish a framework in which this exceptional performance is the result of thermodynamic harmonic generation by the massless topological surface states, benefiting from ultrafast dissipation of electronic heat via surface-bulk Coulomb interactions. These results are an important step towards on-chip terahertz (opto)electronic applications.

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Roadmap for Photonics with 2D Materials
• Tunable room temperature nonlinear Hall effect from the surfaces of elementary bismuth thin films
• Engineering THz-frequency light generation, detection and manipulation through graphene
• Observation of terahertz second harmonic generation from Dirac surface states in the topological insulator Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$
• Terahertz third-harmonic generation of lightwave driven Weyl fermions far from equilibrium
• Second harmonic generation and third harmonic generation in topological insulator-based van der Waals metamaterials
• Terahertz Spin-Light Coupling in Proximitized Dirac Materials
• Highly efficient broadband THz upconversion with Dirac materials
• Terahertz harmonic generation across the Mott insulator-metal transition
• Visible and Terahertz Nonlinear Responses in the Topological Noble Metal Dichalcogenide PdTe2
• Giant enhancement of terahertz high-harmonic generation by cavity engineering of a three-dimensional Dirac semimetal