Emission of collimated THz pulses from photo-excited semiconductors

It is shown experimentally that surface-field terahertz (THz) emitters can produce well-collimated beams of THz radiation, making them useful devices for time-domain spectroscopy applications. Simulations of the carrier-dynamics are used to explain the mechanism of THz generation in InAs and GaAs, and it is shown that inter-valley scattering of electrons must be considered in order to fully describe THz emission from InAs. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version) 1