Tuning the Terahertz Emission Power of an Intrinsic Josephson-Junction Stack with a Focused Laser Beam

Abstract

Developing a tunable source of high-power terahertz radiation is an ongoing research challenge, with promise for applications including biosensing and high-speed communication. The authors show that the THz emission from a stack of intrinsic Josephson junctions in a cuprate superconductor embedded between two gold layers can be manipulated by a focused laser beam. The output power can be increased by as much as 75% with laser irradiation, and tuned continuously and rapidly as the laser beam is moved along the length of the stack, locally heating different spots of the sample.