ROOTHz (ICT-243845)

Semiconductor nanodevices for room temperature THz emission and detection

European Comission (2010-2012)

This project addresses the bottleneck of Terahertz Science and Technology, where the fabrication of room temperature, continuous wave, compact, tunable and powerful sources (at low cost, if possible) is the prime challenge. For this sake we propose to exploit THz Gunn oscillations in novel (narrow and wide bandgap) semiconductor nanodevices, which have been predicted by simulations but not experimentally confirmed yet. We aim at the fabrication of solid state emitters and detectors at THz frequencies by exploiting the properties of both wide and narrow bandgap semiconductors and the advantages provided by the use of novel device architectures such as slot-diodes and rectifying nano‑diodes (nano-channels with broken symmetry so called self-switching diodes, SSDs). The simplicity of the technological process used for the fabrication of these diodes is remarkable, since it only involves the etching of insulating trenches or recess lines on a semiconductor surface (a single step of high resolution lithography). Furthermore, their particular geometry allows providing Gunn oscillations overcoming the classical frequency limit (around 300GHz). The fabrication of THz detectors with the same technology will complement this objective and allow the demonstration of a simple THz detection/emission subsystem at the conclusion of the project.

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