Evaluation of the device characteristics of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+<i>δ</i> terahertz-wave emitters using wet-etching techniques

Abstract

Understanding the device characteristics associated with the shape and size of crystal chips is a key requirement for developing high-performance terahertz (THz) wave-emitting devices made of high-temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ(Bi2212) crystal chips, because these parameters reflect the emission frequency, emission power, self-heating conditions, and impedance matching. Wet-etching techniques are beneficial for creating comparable emitting chips from the same crystal fragment to further understand the above points regarding using Bi2212-crystal chips. Using wet-etching techniques, we prepared rectangular crystal chips with the same area using three different width (w) and length (L) aspect ratios and compared their emission characteristics. The range of the observed emission frequencies tended to be less dependent on the w/L ratio. However, the three samples differed significantly in terms of the excitation modes expected from the w/L ratio. When the aspect ratio approached one, the results indicated a tendency to resonate in the higher excitation modes. The excitation modes along the width of the chip were suppressed by decreasing the w/L ratio owing to the increased resonance frequencies of the transverse magnetic TM(m,0) modes. Although further studies are required, especially in terms of output enhancement, the results obtained herein are expected to aid in producing devices that can operate in the desired excitation mode.