Study of photoexcited-carrier dynamics in GaAs photoconductive switches using dynamic terahertz emission microscopy

Abstract

We propose dynamic terahertz (THz) emission microscopy (DTEM) to visualize temporal–spatial dynamics of photoexcited carriers in electronic materials. DTEM utilizes THz pulses emitted from a sample by probe pulses irradiated after pump pulse irradiation to perform time-resolved two-dimensional mapping of the THz pulse emission, reflecting various carrier dynamics. Using this microscopy, we investigated carrier dynamics in the gap region of low-temperature-grown GaAs and semi-insulating GaAs photoconductive switches of the identical-dipole type. The observed DTEM images are well explained by the change in the electric potential distribution between the electrodes caused by the screening effect of the photoexcited electron-hole pairs.