Title: Study on the excitation and propagation characteristics of THz-wave surface plasmon polaritons on the surface of semiconductor

Authors: Qi Wang; Qingyong Tang; Dawei Zhang; Zhongfei Wang; Yuanshen Huang; Zhengji Ni

Addresses: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Modern Optical System, Optical Instrument and Systems Engineering Center of the Ministry of Education, School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 JunGong Road, Shanghai 200093, China ' Shanghai Key Laboratory of Modern Optical System, Optical Instrument and Systems Engineering Center of the Ministry of Education, School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 JunGong Road, Shanghai 200093, China ' Shanghai Key Laboratory of Modern Optical System, Optical Instrument and Systems Engineering Center of the Ministry of Education, School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 JunGong Road, Shanghai 200093, China ' Shanghai Key Laboratory of Modern Optical System, Optical Instrument and Systems Engineering Center of the Ministry of Education, School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 JunGong Road, Shanghai 200093, China ' Shanghai Key Laboratory of Modern Optical System, Optical Instrument and Systems Engineering Center of the Ministry of Education, School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 JunGong Road, Shanghai 200093, China ' Shanghai Key Laboratory of Modern Optical System, Optical Instrument and Systems Engineering Center of the Ministry of Education, School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 JunGong Road, Shanghai 200093, China

Abstract: In the paper, the excitation and propagation characteristics of terahertz (THz) wave surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at the interfaces of semiconductors (InAs, InP, GaAs) and air are presented. By analysing the confinement strength of surface plasmon and its propagation length with frequency changing, we demonstrate that the confinement strength of surface plasmon and its propagating length are a trade-off. Furthermore, the effect of temperature variation on the propagation characteristics of SPPs wave at the surface of intrinsic semiconductor InSb is presented. Calculations show that the surface plasma frequency goes higher with increasing temperature, corresponding to the enlargement of carrier concentration of semiconductor. The factor of confinement strength decreases while the propagation length of SPPs increases with increasing temperature under a certain excitation THz wave. This will provide a valuable reference for the design and optimisation of THz wave surface plasma devices.

Keywords: terahertz; surface plasmon polaritons; SPPs; semiconductor surfaces; dispersion relation; excitation; propagation length; THz waves; confinement strength; temperature variation; InAs; InP; GaAs; InSb; surface plasma devices.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2015.071795

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2015 Vol.12 No.10/11/12, pp.838 - 848

Published online: 18 Sep 2015 *

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