Enhanced terahertz emission of a gallium arsenide thin film on a porous silicon distributed Bragg reflector designed at 800nm wavelength

Abstract Enhanced terahertz (THz) radiation was generated from a gallium arsenide thin film integrated on top of porous silicon distributed Bragg reflector (GaAs/PSi DBR). The film's thickness was designed to be less than the penetration depth of the 800 nm excitation source, while the PSi DBR was centered at the laser wavelength to reflect the transmitted photons at the film-substrate interface. Reflection-geometry THz time-domain spectroscopy measurement revealed enhancement in THz peak to peak amplitude by 1.67 and 5.7 times as compared to the same thickness of GaAs on silicon (GaAs/Si) and bulk semi-insulating (SI) GaAs, respectively. In comparison with the bulk SI-GaAs, both thin film samples showed an order of magnitude improvement in the THz output power. The excitation-wavelength study also revealed a maximum increase near the design wavelength. The enhancement was attributed to the high reflectivity at the film-substrate interface and optical cavity effect in GaAs. These factors contributed to an effective optical confinement within the film's THz generation region.