1217
ISSN 1063-7826, Semiconductors, 2019, Vol. 53, No. 9, pp. 1217–1221. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2019.
Russian Text © The Author(s), 2019, published in Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, 2019, Vol. 53, No. 9, pp. 1244–1249.
Second-Harmonic Generation of Subterahertz Gyrotron Radiation
by Frequency Doubling in InP:Fe and Its Application
for Magnetospectroscopy of Semiconductor Structures
V. V. Rumyantsev
a,
*, K. V. Maremyanin
a
, A. P. Fokin
b
, A. A. Dubinov
a
, V. V. Utochkin
a
, M. Yu. Glyavin
b
,
N. N. Mikhailov
c
, S. A. Dvoretskii
c
, S. V. Morozov
a
, and V. I. Gavrilenko
a
a
Institute for Physics of Microstructures, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod, 603950 Russia
b
Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod, 603950 Russia
c
Institute for Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090 Russia
*e-mail: rumyantsev@ipm.sci-nnov.ru
Received April 24, 2019; revised April 29, 2019; accepted April 29, 2019
Abstract—The possibility of obtaining intense terahertz radiation due to second-order lattice nonlinearity in
indium-phosphide crystals doped with iron is discussed. As a source of radiation, subterahertz gyrotrons are
considered. It is shown that the efficiency of frequency doubling can reach 3%, which opens up the possibility
for developing a new generation of terahertz radiation sources. The possibility of applying second-harmonic
radiation for the magnetospectroscopy of semiconductor structures with quasi-Dirac dispersion is demon-
strated.
Keywords: gyrotrons, frequency doubling, terahertz radiation, indium phosphide, second-order nonlinearity
DOI: 10.1134/S1063782619090185
1. INTRODUCTION
In recent decades, an unprecedented increase in
activity in the so-called terahertz (THz) range of the
electromagnetic spectrum has been observed around
the world. The giant spread of studies into the possibil-
ity of using THz radiation in a variety of very import-
ant applications suggests that today this range proves
to be at the forefront of investigations and develop-
ments (see, for example, [1–3]). In the THz range,
there occur the rotational spectra of many organic
molecules including vibrations of biologically import-
ant collective modes of DNA and proteins, as well as
phonon resonances of crystal lattices, which make
possible the development of new methods for the
spectroscopy of biological and semiconductor struc-
tures. The use of THz radiation for diagnosis and ther-
apy in biology and medicine are of particular appeal.
Unlike X-rays, this radiation is nonionizing and causes
no tissue damage, which makes possible a diagnosis
that is harmless to humans including that of cancer
and burns.
The difficulty in creating efficient terahertz sources
is related to the fact that, in the terahertz range, well-
developed methods for generating optical and micro-
wave radiation are poorly applicable. A separate prob-
lem lies in creating narrow-band sources of intense
THz radiation. Powerful sources of terahertz radiation
based on charge-carrier transport are synchrotrons
and free-electron lasers; however, a high cost and large
sizes prevent their wide use even for purely scientific
applications. The classical devices of vacuum elec-
tronics, such as traveling-wave tubes and backward-
wave tubes, barely achieve the frequency limit of
1 THz, and their radiation power in this range does
not exceed 1 mW. The difficulties in increasing the
operating frequency of such vacuum sources are asso-
ciated with those in manufacturing a small-scale
deceleration system [4]. In gyrodevices, the radiation
frequency is limited by the magnetic-field strength (to
generate radiation at a frequency of 1 THz at the fun-
damental harmonic, a field of ~38 T is required) and
by the necessity of selection when working at gyrofre-
quency harmonics, which usually requires complex
technical solutions. On the other hand, since the
equivalent temperature of 1 THz radiation is only
47.6 K, the thermal relaxation of levels at room tem-
perature leads to the rapid destruction of inversion in
lasers. Thus, quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs), which
occupy the leading positions among compact semi-
conductor sources in the mid-infrared (IR) range,
operate at terahertz frequencies only under conditions
of cryogenic cooling. Nowadays, the highest operating
temperatures of THz QCLs are 117 K in the continu-
ous-wave mode [5] and 199.5 K with pulsed pumping
XXIII INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
“NANOPHYSICS AND NANOELECTRONICS”,
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, MARCH 11–14, 2019