Semiconductor Physics, Quantum Electronics & Optoelectronics, 25 (3), P. 254-261 (2022).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/spqeo25.03.254

Spin-dependent polarization response in HgCdTe hot-electron bolometers

F.F. Sizov1*, J.V. Gumenjuk-Sichevska1, S.N. Danilov2, Z.F. Tsybrii1

1 V. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, NAS of Ukraine,
41, prosp. Nauky, 03680 Kyiv, Ukraine
2 Terahertz Center, University of Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany
*Corresponding author e-mail: sizov@isp.kiev.ua

Abstract. The paper reports the detection of strong polarization-dependent photo-responses in direct narrow-gap (Eg = 0.084 eV at T = 80 K) HgCdTe thin-layer biased and unbiased hot-electron bolometers (HEBs) with receiving antennas under elliptically polarized THz radiation. The observed effects are assumed to be due to the Rashba spin splitting in HgCdTe, caused by large spin-orbit interactions. The studied detectors demonstrate free-carrier polarization-dependent sensitivity to laser radiation with h 0.0044 eV (ν = 1.07 THz) and 0.0025 eV (ν = 0.6 THz), i.e., with photon energies much less than the band-gap (hν << Eg) at T = 80 and 300 K. The polarization-dependent photocurrent in HgCdTe HEBs with and without applied external constant electric field is shown to have angular dependence of photocurrent with directional reversal on switching the photon helicity.

Keywords: THz antenna-coupled hot-electron bolometer, THz elliptically polarized radiation, polarization-dependent photo-response, narrow-gap HgCdTe.

Full Text (PDF)


Back to Volume 25 N3

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.