Abstract-Single Nanowire Photoconductive Terahertz Detectors

Kun Peng , Patrick Parkinson , Lan Fu , Qiang Gao , Nian Jiang , Yanan Guo , Fan Wang , Hannah J Joyce , Jessica L Boland , Hark Hoe Tan , Chennupati Jagadish , and Michael B Johnston

Nano Lett., Just Accepted Manuscript

DOI: 10.1021/nl5033843

Publication Date (Web): December 9, 2014

Copyright © 2014 American Chemical Society

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl5033843

Spectroscopy and imaging in the terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum has proven to provide important insights in fields as diverse as chemical analysis, materials characterization, security screening and non-destructive testing. However, compact optoelectronics suited to the most powerful terahertz technique – time-domain spectroscopy – are lacking. Here, we implement single GaAs nanowires as microscopic coherent THz sensors and for the first time incorporated them into the pulsed time-domain technique. We also demonstrate the functionality of the single nanowire THz detector as a spectrometer by using it to measure the transmission spectrum of a 290 GHz low pass filter. Thus nanowires are shown to be well suited for THz device applications, and hold particular promise as near-field terahertz sensors.