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Interference-induced terahertz transparency in a semiconductor magneto-plasma

Nature Physics volume 6, pages 126–130 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Maximum modulation of light transmission occurs when an opaque medium is suddenly made transparent. This phenomenon occurs in atomic and molecular gases through different mechanisms1,2, whereas much room remains for further studies in solids3,4,5. A plasma is an illustrative system showing opacity for low-frequency light, and light–plasma interaction theory provides a universal framework to describe diverse phenomena including radiation in space plasmas6, diagnostics of laboratory plasmas7 and collective excitations in condensed matter8. However, induced transparency in plasmas remains relatively unexplored9. Here, we use coherent terahertz magneto-spectroscopy to reveal a thermally and magnetically induced transparency in a semiconductor plasma. A sudden appearance and disappearance of transmission through electron-doped InSb is observed over narrow temperature and magnetic field ranges, owing to coherent interference between left- and right-circularly polarized terahertz eigenmodes. Excellent agreement with theory reveals long-lived coherence of magneto-plasmons and demonstrates the importance of coherent interference in the terahertz regime.

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Figure 1: Temperature dependence of terahertz transmittance spectra for lightly doped InSb in a magnetic field.
Figure 2: Interaction of an incident linearly polarized terahertz wave with a plasma in a magnetic field in the Faraday geometry.
Figure 3: Experimental and theoretical terahertz transmittance spectra at various magnetic fields.
Figure 4: Appearance of thermally induced terahertz transparency in a magneto-plasma as a result of coherence interference of CRA (extraordinary) and CRI (ordinary) waves.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through Award Nos. DMR-0134058, DMR-0325474, ECS-0547019 (CAREER) and OISE-0530220 and the Robert A. Welch Foundation through Grant No. C-1509. We thank A. Srivastava for technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA

    X. Wang, D. M. Mittleman & J. Kono

  2. Department of Physics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA

    A. A. Belyanin

  3. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA

    S. A. Crooker

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  1. X. Wang
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  2. A. A. Belyanin
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  3. S. A. Crooker
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  4. D. M. Mittleman
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  5. J. Kono
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Contributions

X.W., S.A.C., D.M.M. and J.K. carried out the terahertz measurements. A.A.B. developed the theoretical model and carried out theoretical simulations. All authors analysed the experimental data and contributed to the preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to J. Kono.

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Wang, X., Belyanin, A., Crooker, S. et al. Interference-induced terahertz transparency in a semiconductor magneto-plasma. Nature Phys 6, 126–130 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1480

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