Ultrafast THz Conductivity Dynamics of a Novel Fe-Doped InGaAs Quantum Photoconductor

Abstract

We propose an Fe-doped, InGaAs-based semiconductor heterostructure optimized for the application as an ultrafast photoconductor and investigate its optical as well as THz properties. A sample series with varying doping concentration is grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. After examination of its static optical properties, the pump-induced intraband carrier dynamics are investigated via optical pump-THz probe measurements. Here, we observe conductivity decay times as low as 0.23 ps which are attributed to electron capture into Fe-related defects. These results are corroborated by monitoring the corresponding interband dynamics via all-optical pump-probe measurements. In addition, the competitiveness of THz detectors fabricated from a subset of these samples is demonstrated by integrating them into a standard time-domain spectrometer.