Emission of Terahertz Waves from Stacks of Intrinsic Josephson Junctions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how patterning BSCCO crystals into resonators can synchronize intrinsic Josephson junctions to produce strong, tunable terahertz radiation, with emission power affected by temperature-dependent effects.

Contribution

It introduces a method to generate and control THz emission from intrinsic Josephson junction stacks using resonator patterning and temperature management.

Findings

Synchronization of junction oscillations yields strong THz emission.

Temperature influences emission power via self-heating and re-trapping effects.

Resonator shaping enables voltage-tunable THz frequencies.

Abstract

By patterning mesoscopic crystals of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (BSCCO) into electromagnetic resonators the oscillations of a large number of intrinsic Josephson junctions can be synchronized into a macroscopic coherent state accompanied by the emission of strong continuous wave THz-radiation. The temperature dependence of the emission is governed by the interplay of self-heating in the resonator and by re-trapping of intrinsic Josephson junctions which can yield a strongly nonmonotonic temperature dependence of the emission power. Furthermore, proper shaping of the resonators yields THzsources with voltage-tunable emission frequencies.