No Arabic abstract
Terahertz (THz) technology is promising in several applications such as imaging, spectroscopy and communications. Among several methods in the generation and detection of THz waves, a THz time domain system (TDS) that is developed using photoconductive antennas (PCA) as emitter and detector presents several advantages such as simple alignment, low cost, high performance etc. In this work, we report the design, fabrication and characterization of a 2-D PCA array that is capable of detecting both the amplitude and phase of the THz pulse. The PCA array is fabricated using LT-GaAs and has 8 channels with 64 pixels (8x8). The infrared probe beam is steered and focused towards each pixel of the PCA array using a spatial light modulator (SLM). The measured photocurrent (amplitude and phase) from each channel is recorded separately and the frequencies up to 1.4 THz can be detected. Furthermore, the parameters such as directional time delay of the THz pulse, crosstalk between the channels etc., were characterized. Finally, we show that the proposed 2D PCA array design is flexible and can be used for accelerated THz spectral image acquisition.
A proof of concept for high speed near-field imaging with sub-wavelength resolution using SLM is presented. An 8 channel THz detector array antenna with an electrode gap of 100 um and length of 5 mm is fabricated using the commercially available GaAs semiconductor substrate. Each array antenna can be excited simultaneously by spatially reconfiguring the optical probe beam and the THz electric field can be recorded using 8 channel lock-in amplifiers. By scanning the probe beam along the length of the array antenna, a 2D image can be obtained with amplitude, phase and frequency information.
Terahertz (THz) Time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is a broadband spectroscopic technique spreading its uses in multiple fields: in science from material science to biology, in industry where it measures the thickness of a paint layer during the painting operation. Using such practical commercial apparatus with broad spectrum for gas spectroscopy could be a major asset for air quality monitoring and tracking of atmospheric composition. However, gas spectroscopy needs high resolution and the usual approach in THz-TDS, where the recorded time trace is Fourier transform, suffers from resolution limitation due to the size of the delay line in the system. In this letter, we introduce the concept of constraint reconstruction for super-resolution spectroscopy based on the modeling of the spectroscopic lines in a sparse spectrum. Light molecule gas typically shows sparse and narrow lines on a broad spectrum and we propose an algorithm reconstructing these lines with a resolution improvement of 10 the ultimate resolution reachable by the apparatus. We envision the proposed technique to lead to broadband, selective, rapid and cheap gas monitoring applications.
A room-temperature mid-infrared (9 um) heterodyne system based on high-performance unipolar optoelectronic devices is presented. The local oscillator (LO) is a quantum cascade laser, while the receiver is an antenna coupled quantum well infrared photodetector optimized to operate in a microcavity configuration. Measurements of the saturation intensity show that these receivers have a linear response up to very high optical power, an essential feature for heterodyne detection. By an accurate passive stabilization of the local oscillator and minimizing the optical feed-back the system reaches, at room temperature, a record value of noise equivalent power of 30 pW at 9um. Finally, it is demonstrated that the injection of microwave signal into our receivers shifts the heterodyne beating over the bandwidth of the devices. This mixing property is a unique valuable function of these devices for signal treatment.
We report a broadband terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) which enables twenty vibrational modes of adenosine nucleoside to be resolved in a wide frequency range of 1-20 THz. The observed spectroscopic features of adenosine are in good agreement with the published spectra obtained using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. This much-extended bandwidth leads to enhanced material characterization capability as it provides spectroscopic information on both intra-molecular and inter-molecular vibrations. In addition, we also report a low-cost Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave (FMCW) imaging system which has a fast measurement speed of 40,000 waveforms per second. Cross-sectional imaging capability through cardboard has also been demonstrated using its excellent penetration capability at a frequency range of 76-81 GHz. We anticipate that the integration of these two complementary imaging technologies would be highly desirable for many real-world applications because it provides both spectroscopic discrimination and penetration capabilities in a single instrument.
Spintronic structures are extensively investigated for their spin orbit torque properties, required for magnetic commutation functionalities. Current progress in these materials is dependent on the interface engineering for the optimization of spin transmission. Here, we advance the analysis of ultrafast spin-charge conversion phenomena at ferromagnetic-transition metal interfaces due to their inverse spin-Hall effect properties. In particular the intrinsic inverse spin Hall effect of Pt-based systems and extrinsic inverse spin-Hall effect of Au:W and Au:Ta in NiFe/Au:(W,Ta) bilayers are investigated. The spin-charge conversion is probed by complementary techniques -- ultrafast THz time domain spectroscopy in the dynamic regime for THz pulse emission and ferromagnetic resonance spin-pumping measurements in the GHz regime in the steady state -- to determine the role played by the material properties, resistivities, spin transmission at metallic interfaces and spin-flip rates. These measurements show the correspondence between the THz time domain spectroscopy and ferromagnetic spin-pumping for the different set of samples in term of the spin mixing conductance. The latter quantity is a critical parameter, determining the strength of the THz emission from spintronic interfaces. This is further supported by ab-initio calculations, simulations and analysis of the spin-diffusion and spin relaxation of carriers within the multilayers in the time domain, permitting to determine the main trends and the role of spin transmission at interfaces. This work illustrates that time domain spectroscopy for spin-based THz emission is a powerful technique to probe spin-dynamics at active spintronic interfaces and to extract key material properties for spin-charge conversion.