Contactless mobility measurements using two-photon excitation and a terahertz probe

Published

March 6, 2018

Author(s)

Jared K. Wahlstrand, Edwin J. Heilweil

Abstract

Time-dependent THz spectroscopy is widely used for measuring mobility in novel electronic materials, in which the mobility is often adversely affected by defects and unintentional dopants [1]. One of its great advantages over other techniques is that it does not require ohmic contacts. Recently, it was shown that the mobility values extracted from optical-pump, THz-probe measurements are consistent with contact-based Hall Van der Pauw measurements [2]. However, because of the sub-micron penetration depth of above band gap light in direct bandgap semiconductors, the carrier densities required to produce a measurable change in THz transmission are high enough that the mobility can be reduced by electron-electron scattering. Below gap two-photon excitation offers an alternative since it is able to excite carriers throughout the entire semiconductor thickness at once, resulting in a significantly lower carrier density for the same amount of THz absorption. We present results for ZnSe and GaP and compare the THz measurements to conventional z-scan and pump absorption on the same samples.

Proceedings Title

APS March Meeting 2018 Scientific Program

Conference Dates

March 5-9, 2018

Conference Location

Los Angeles, CA

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

mobility, two-photon, terahertz, semiconductors, nonlinear optics

Citation

Wahlstrand, J. and Heilweil, E. (2018), Contactless mobility measurements using two-photon excitation and a terahertz probe, APS March Meeting 2018 Scientific Program, Los Angeles, CA (Accessed October 8, 2025)