Intense terahertz emission from a-plane InN surface

Abstract

We report a significant enhancement in terahertz emission from the indium nitride (InN) films grown along the a axis (a-plane InN), relative to the InN films grown along the c axis. The primary radiation mechanism of the a-plane InN film is found to be due to the acceleration of photoexcited carriers under the polarization-induced in-plane electric field perpendicular to the a axis, which effectively enhances the geometrical coupling of the radiation out of semiconductor. In addition, azimuthal angle dependence measurement shows that the p-polarized terahertz output consists of a large angularly independent component and a weak component with a distinctive fourfold rotation symmetry. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.