0000000000092818
AUTHOR
Riccardo Piccoli
Solid-state-biased coherent detection of ultra-broadband terahertz pulses
Significant progress in nonlinear and ultrafast optics has recently opened new and exciting opportunities for terahertz (THz) science and technology, which require the development of reliable THz sources, detectors, and supporting devices. In this work, we demonstrate the first solid-state technique for the coherent detection of ultra-broadband THz pulses (0.1-10 THz), relying on the electric-field-induced second-harmonic generation in a thin layer of ultraviolet fused silica. The proposed CMOS-compatible devices, which can be realized with standard microfabrication techniques, allow us to perform ultra-broadband detection with a high dynamic range by employing probe laser powers and bias v…
Homodyne Solid-State Biased Coherent Detection of Ultra-Broadband Terahertz Pulses with Static Electric Fields.
We present an innovative implementation of the solid-state-biased coherent detection (SSBCD) technique, which we have recently introduced for the reconstruction of both amplitude and phase of ultra-broadband terahertz pulses. In our previous works, the SSBCD method has been operated via a heterodyne scheme, which involves demanding square-wave voltage amplifiers, phase-locked to the THz pulse train, as well as an electronic circuit for the demodulation of the readout signal. Here, we demonstrate that the SSBCD technique can be operated via a very simple homodyne scheme, exploiting plain static bias voltages. We show that the homodyne SSBCD signal turns into a bipolar transient when the stat…
Invited Article: Ultra-broadband terahertz coherent detection via a silicon nitride-based deep sub-wavelength metallic slit
We present a novel class of CMOS-compatible devices aimed to perform the solid-state-biased coherent detection of ultrashort terahertz pulses, i.e., featuring a gap-free bandwidth at least two decades-wide. Such a structure relies on a 1-µm-wide slit aperture located between two parallel aluminum pads, embedded in a 1-µm-thick layer of silicon nitride, and deposited on a quartz substrate. We show that this device can detect ultra-broadband terahertz pulses by employing unprecedented low optical probe energies of only a few tens of nanojoules. This is due to the more than one order of magnitude higher nonlinear coefficient of silicon nitride with respect to silica, the nonlinear material emp…
Highly Sensitive Polarization Rotation Measurement through a High‐Order Vector Beam Generated by a Metasurface
The precise determination of the polarization state of light is fundamental for a vast variety of applications in remote sensing, astronomy, optics and terahertz technology, to name just a few. Typically, polarization characterization is performed by using a combination of multiple optical devices such as beam splitters, polarizers, and waveplates. Moreover, to achieve high-precision, balanced photodetectors and lock-in amplifiers are employed, thus contributing to increasing system complexity. Here, a technique for polarization rotation measurements with a dynamic range of 180° and a sensitivity of about 10−2 degrees is realized using a properly designed metasurface. Such device generates …
3084329.pdf
Supplementary Materials
Antenna Tapering Strategy for Near-Field Enhancement Optimization in Terahertz Gold Nanocavities
Plasmonic nanoantennas (NAs) have received a growing attention in recent years due to their ability to confine light on sub-wavelength dimensions [1]. More recently, this property has been exploited in the terahertz (THz) frequency range (0.1–10 THz) for enhanced sensing and spectroscopy [2], as well as for more fundamental investigations [3]. These applications typically require high local electric fields that can be achieved by concentrating THz radiation into deeply sub-wavelength volumes located at the NAs extremities. However, the achievable near-field enhancement values are severely limited by the poor resonance quality factor of traditional rod-shaped THz NAs. Unlike what is commonly…
Rotational Doppler Frequency Shift from Time‐Evolving High‐Order Pancharatnam–Berry Phase: A Metasurface Approach
The Doppler frequency shift of sound or electromagnetic waves has been widely investigated in many different contexts and, nowadays, represents a formidable tool in medicine, engineering, astrophysics, and optics. Such effect is commonly described in the framework of the universal energy-momentum conservation law. In particular, the rotational Doppler effect has been recently demonstrated using light carrying orbital angular momentum. When a wave undergoes a cyclic adiabatic transformation of its Hamiltonian, it is known to acquire the so-called Pancharatnam–Berry (PB) phase. In this work, an experimental evidence of the direct connection between the high-order PB phase time evolution on th…
Generation of Structured Light via Nano Structures and Applications
The generation of structured light by means of metasurfaces is presented and the applications in the characterizations of polarization rotation and Pancharatnam-Berry phase are discussed.
Affordable, ultra-broadband coherent detection of terahertz pulses via CMOS-compatible solid-state devices
We demonstrate the first fully solid-state technique for the coherent detection of ultra-broadband THz pulses (0.1-10 THz), relying on the electric-field-induced second-harmonic generation attained in integrated CMOS-compatible devices.
Asymmetric Dual-Grating Micro-Slit Configuration for Broadband Solid State Coherent Detection of THz Pulses
We demonstrated solid-state broadband coherent Terahertz characterization based on the Terahertz Field Induced Second Harmonic effect in Silica. The THz detector consists of an asymmetric micro-slit array which can be operated at 200V applied bias.
Silicon nitride-based deep sub-λ slit for ultra-broadband THz coherent detection
We report on the characterization of a new type of CMOS-compatible device for terahertz solid-state biased coherent detection, which relies on a 1-µm-wide metallic slit embedded in a thin film of PECVD-grown silicon nitride.
Improving nanoscale terahertz field localization by means of sharply tapered resonant nanoantennas
Abstract Terahertz resonant nanoantennas have recently become a key tool to investigate otherwise inaccessible interactions of such long-wavelength radiation with nano-matter. Because of their high-aspect-ratio rod-shaped geometry, resonant nanoantennas suffer from severe loss, which ultimately limits their field localization performance. Here we show, via a quasi-analytical model, numerical simulations, and experimental evidence, that a proper tapering of such nanostructures relaxes their overall loss, leading to an augmented local field enhancement and a significantly reduced resonator mode volume. Our findings, which can also be extended to more complex geometries and higher frequencies,…
Ultra-broadband terahertz time domain spectroscopy by Solid State Biased Coherent Detection
The spectral fingerprint of ibuprofen within the THz frequency window has been retrieved through an ultra-broadband THz Time Domain Spectrometry set-up. The latter implements the Solid State Biased Coherent Detection scheme, based on a compact CMOS-compatible integrated device. Such a technique shows unprecedented advantages in term of bandwidth (greater than 10 THz) over other solid state methods like electro-optic sampling.