Carbon nanotubes for polarization sensitive terahertz plasmonic interferometry

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates helicity-sensitive terahertz photovoltaic response in carbon nanotube transistors, revealing plasma wave interference effects that could enable advanced plasmonic interferometry applications.

Contribution

It uncovers the universal helicity-sensitive photovoltaic response in carbon nanotube transistors and related systems, linking it to plasma wave interference and decay length.

Findings

Rectified voltage differs for clockwise and anticlockwise circular polarization.

Helicity-sensitive response is a universal phenomenon across different systems.

Magnitude correlates with plasma wave decay length.

Abstract

We report on helicity sensitive photovoltaic terahertz radiation response of a carbon nanotube made in a conguration of a field effect transistor. We find that the magnitude of the rectified voltage is different for clockwise and anticlockwise circularly polarized radiation. We demonstrate that this effect is a fingerprint of the plasma waves interference in the transistor channel. We also find that that the presence of the helicity- and phase-sensitive interference part of the photovoltaic response is a universal phenomenon which is obtained in the systems of different dimensionality with different single particle spectrum. Its magnitude is characteristic of the plasma wave decay length. This opens up a wide avenue for applications in the area of plasmonic interferometry.