Terahertz technologies

All-dielectric photoconductive metasurfaces for terahertz applications

¹ University College London, London, WC1E 7JE UK
² Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Labs, Albuquerque, NM 87123, USA
³ Sandia National Labs, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA

^* e-mail: o.mitrofanov@ucl.ac.uk

Abstract

We review applications of all-dielectric metasurfaces for one of the cornerstone technologies in THz research – ultrafast photoconductive (PC) switches – which are widely used as sources and detectors of broadband THz pulses. Nanostructuring the PC switch channel as a perfectly-absorbing and optically thin PC metasurface allows us to engineer the optical as well as the electronic properties of the channel and improve the efficiency of THz detectors. This approach also opens new routes for employing novel PC materials and enabling new device architectures including THz detector arrays.