Gapless Broadband Terahertz Emission from a Germanium Photoconductive Emitter

Photoconductive terahertz (THz) emitters have been fulfilling many demands required for table-top THz time-domain spectroscopy up to 3–4 THz. In contrast to the widely used photoconductive materials such as GaAs and InGaAs, Ge is a nonpolar semiconductor characterized by a gapless transmission in the THz region due to absence of one-phonon absorption. We present here the realization of a Ge-based photoconductive THz emitter with a smooth broadband spectrum extending up to 13 THz and compare its performance with a GaAs-based analogue. We show that the spectral bandwidth of the Ge emitter is limited mainly by the laser pulse width (65 fs) and, thus, can be potentially extended to even much higher THz frequencies.