Terahertz radiation-induced sub-cycle field electron emission across a split-gap dipole antenna
Abstract
We use intense terahertz pulses to excite the resonant mode (0.6 THz) of a micro-fabricated dipole antenna with a vacuum gap. The dipole antenna structure enhances the peak amplitude of the in-gap THz electric field by a factor of ~170. Above an in-gap E-field threshold amplitude of ~10 MVcm-1, THz-induced field electron emission is observed (TIFEE) as indicated by the field-induced electric current across the dipole antenna gap. Field emission occurs within a fraction of the driving THz period. Our analysis of the current (I) and incident electric field (E) is in agreement with a Millikan-Lauritsen analysis where log (I) exhibits a linear dependence on 1/E. Numerical estimates indicate that the electrons are accelerated to a value of approximately one tenth of the speed of light.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1508.04737,
title = {Terahertz radiation-induced sub-cycle field electron emission across a split-gap dipole antenna},
author = {Jingdi Zhang and Xiaoguang Zhao and Kebin Fan and Xiaoning Wang and Gu-Feng Zhang and Kun Geng and Xin Zhang and Richard D. Averitt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.04737},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
15 pages, 5 figures