Temperature dependence of terahertz radiation from n-type InSb and n-type InAs surfaces

The azimuthal angle dependence and the temperature dependence of terahertz (THz) radiation generated from n-type (111) InSb and n-type (111) InAs surfaces irradiated with ∼80 fs near-infrared laser pulses are investigated. The azimuthal angle dependence shows that the contribution of the difference-frequency mixing (DFM) is not dominant for both materials at the excitation density of ∼1 GW/cm2. At an appropriate azimuthal angle, the radiation due to DFM is excluded from the total THz radiation and the temperature dependence of THz radiation due to the surge current is observed. The increase of THz radiation with decrease of the temperature is found to be much more pronounced for InSb than for InAs. The different temperature dependence can be attributed to the different radiation mechanisms dominant for both materials. Especially, the temperature dependence of the THz radiation from InSb is well explained by the photo-Dember effect.