High efficiency photomodulators for millimeter wave and THz radiation (article)
dc.contributor.author | Hooper, I | |
dc.contributor.author | Grant, NE | |
dc.contributor.author | Barr, LE | |
dc.contributor.author | Hornett, SM | |
dc.contributor.author | Murphy, JD | |
dc.contributor.author | Hendry, E | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-11-21T10:50:04Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2019-12-04 | |
dc.description.abstract | Photomodulators for mm-wave and THz radiation are an essential component for many imaging and signal processing applications. While a myriad of schemes have been devised to enhance photomodulation by enhancing the light-matter interaction, there has been less focus on the photoconductive materials themselves, which are often the limiting factor. Here, we present an approach to increase the photomodulation efficiency of silicon by orders of magnitude, using post treatment of off-the-shelf silicon wafers. The increase in efficiency removes the need for bulky and costly amplified laser sources, and creates the potential for compact and cost-effective modulators for real-world applications. By passivating the surfaces of long bulk-lifetime silicon wafers with Al2O3, the recombination of the photoexcited carriers at the surfaces is mostly eliminated. This results in vastly longer excess carrier lifetimes (up to ∼50 ms), with corresponding increases in photoconductivity. The resulting modulators are highly efficient, with the transmission through them being reduced from ∼90% to <10% over a narrow frequency band with a continuous wave excitation intensity of just 10 Wm−2 , whilst modulation factors of greater than 80% can be achieved over a broad band with similar intensities. We also discuss the limitations of such long-lifetime modulators for applications where the switching speed or spatial resolution of a modulator may be critical. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Vol. 9, article 18304 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1038/s41598-019-54011-6 | |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | EP/J01768X/2 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | EP/M024911/1 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | EP/S036466/1 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | EP/S036261/1 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | EP/R004781/1 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/39663 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Nature Research | en_GB |
dc.relation.url | https://doi.org/10.24378/exe.2083 | en_GB |
dc.rights | © The Author(s) 2019. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. | |
dc.title | High efficiency photomodulators for millimeter wave and THz radiation (article) | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2019-11-21T10:50:04Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 2045-2322 | |
dc.description | This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this record | en_GB |
dc.description | The dataset associated with this article is located in ORE at: https://doi.org/10.24378/exe.2083 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | Scientific Reports | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en_GB |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2019-11-01 | |
rioxxterms.version | VoR | en_GB |
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2019-11-01 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | en_GB |
refterms.dateFCD | 2019-11-16T17:29:54Z | |
refterms.versionFCD | AM | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2020-02-17T11:25:15Z | |
refterms.panel | B | en_GB |
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material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the
copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.