Spintronic emitters for super-resolution in THz-spectral imaging

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that spintronic emitters can be used for near-field THz imaging, achieving micrometer-scale resolution, which overcomes diffraction limits in far-field THz spectroscopy for biological and material imaging.

Contribution

It introduces a novel near-field THz imaging method using spintronic emitters directly fabricated on substrates, enabling super-resolution imaging at micrometer scales.

Findings

Achieved a THz beam diameter of approximately 4.9 micrometers.

Demonstrated sub-micrometer scanning resolution with a motorized stage.

Showed potential for simple, wide-ranging near-field THz imaging applications.

Abstract

THz-spectroscopy is an attractive imaging tool for scientific research, especially in life science, offering non-destructive interaction with matter due to its low photon energies. However, wavelengths above $100{\mu}m$ principally limit its spatial resolution in the far-field by diffraction to this regime, making it not sufficient to image biological cells in the micrometer scale. Therefore, super-resolution imaging techniques are required to overcome this restriction. Near-field-imaging using spintronic emitters offers the most feasible approach because of its simplicity and potential for wide-ranging applications. In our study, we investigate THz-radiation generated by fs-laser-pulses in CoFeB/Pt heterostructures, based on spin currents, detected by commercial LT-GaAs Auston switches. The spatial resolution is evaluated applying a 2D scanning technique with motorized stages allowing scanning steps in the sub-micrometer range. By applying near-field imaging we can increase the spatial resolution to the dimensions of the laser spot size in the micrometer scale. For this purpose, the spintronic emitter is directly evaporated on a gold test pattern separated by a 300 nm spacer layer. Moving these structures with respect to the femtosecond laser spot which generates the THz radiation allows for resolution determination using the knife-edge method. We observe a full-width half-maximum THz beam diameter of $4.9(4){\mu}$m at 1 THz. The possibility to deposit spintronic emitter heterostructures on simple glass substrates makes them an interesting candidate for near-field imaging for a large number of applications.