Roles of band gap and Kane electronic dispersion in the terahertz-frequency nonlinear optical response in HgCdTe
Materials with linear electronic dispersion often feature high carrier mobilities and unusually strong nonlinear optical interactions. In this work, we investigate the (THz) nonlinear dynamics of one such material, HgCdTe, with an electronic band dispersion heavily dependent on both temperature and stoichiometry. We show how the band gap, carrier concentration and band shape together determine the nonlinear response of the system. At low temperatures, carrier generation from Zener tunneling dominates the nonlinear response with a reduction in the overall transmission. At room temperature, quasiballistic electronic dynamics drive the largest observed nonlinear optical interactions, leading to a transmission increase. Our results demonstrate the sensitivity of these nonlinear optical properties of narrow-gap materials to small changes in the electronic dispersion and carrier concentration.
Authors
- Steven L. Johnson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6074-4894)
- Elsa Abreu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8348-376X)
- Sarah Houver (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2121-0889)
- Matteo Savoini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7418-5242)
- Janine Dössegger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6314-558X)
- F. Teppe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1516-2112)
- S. S. Krishtopenko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1153-3665)
- Н. Н. Михайлов (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7474-102X)
- Davide Soranzio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6190-3930)
- S. A. Dvoretsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1295-5598)
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Russian Academy of Sciences (RU)
- Novosibirsk State University (RU)
- National Research Tomsk State University (RU)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- Université Paris Cité (FR)
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (CH)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (FR)
- Institute of Semiconductor Physics (RU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. B./Physical review. B
- Published
- 2024-09-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.110.094303
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Terahertz technology and applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.25
Funders
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- College of Natural Resources and Sciences, Humboldt State University