Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 31, 2026
Design, Fabrication, and Experimental Characterization of Plasmonic Photoconductive Terahertz Emitters
Published on: July 8, 2013
Percolation-enhanced generation of terahertz pulses by optical rectification on ultrathin gold films
Gopakumar Ramakrishnan1, Paul C M Planken
1Optics Research Group, Department of Imaging Science and Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands. G.Ramakrishnan@tudelft.nl
Abstract:
Emission of pulses of electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz range is observed when ultrathin gold films on glass are illuminated with femtosecond near-IR laser pulses. A distinct maximum is observed in the emitted terahertz amplitude from films of average thickness just above the percolation threshold. Our measurements suggest that the emission is through a second-order nonlinear optical rectification process, enhanced by the excitation of localized surface plasmon hot spots on the percolated metal film.
