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Phase-sensitive time-domain terahertz reflection spectroscopy

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An approach to time-domain terahertz reflection spectroscopy is proposed and demonstrated. It allows one to obtain very accurately the relative phase of a reflected THz wave form, and consequently the complex dielectric function can be precisely extracted. The relevant setup was demonstrated to allow measurements of a variety of samples: we present results for doped silicon and for ferroelectric SrBi 2 Ta 2 O 9 bulk ceramics as well as thin film on sapphire substrates. © 2003 American Institute of Physics.
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Phase-sensitive time-domain terahertz reflection spectroscopy
A. Pashkin,a) M. Kempa, H. Ne
ˇmec, F. Kadlec, and P. Kuz
ˇel
Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Center for Complex Molecular Systems
and Biomolecules, Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Prague 8, Czech Republic
Received 1 April 2003; accepted 1 August 2003
An approach to time-domain terahertz reflection spectroscopy is proposed and demonstrated. It
allows one to obtain very accurately the relative phase of a reflected THz wave form, and
consequently the complex dielectric function can be precisely extracted. The relevant setup was
demonstrated to allow measurements of a variety of samples: we present results for doped silicon
and for ferroelectric SrBi2Ta2O9bulk ceramics as well as thin film on sapphire substrates.
©2003 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.1614878
I. INTRODUCTION
Time-domain terahertz transmission spectroscopy
TDTTShas become a standard method for measurements
of complex dielectric constant or conductivity of dielectrics,
semiconductors, and superconductors in the millimeter and
submillimeter spectral range.1The technique requires mea-
surement of the temporal profile of the electric field of a
picosecond terahertz THzpulse transmitted through an in-
vestigated sample. The complex spectrum of this pulse is
normalized by a reference spectrum obtained when the
sample is removed from the THz beam paththus yielding
the complex transmittance of the sample. Finally, the com-
plex refractive index in the whole frequency range studied is
obtained through numerical solution of a system of two real
nonlinear equations for the transmittance.2Let us emphasize
the importance of the reference measurement: it ensures the
result is independent of the THz pulse shape as well as of
instrumental functions.
The transmission setup is fully developed and reliable,
but it can be applied only to transparent samples. However,
in the case of samples that are opaque in the THz frequency
range thick and/or with high dielectric loss, the transmis-
sion geometry is not useful and the use of time-domain THz
reflection spectroscopy TDTRSis required. Furthermore,
in the case of thin films on thick substrates, TDTTS some-
times does not offer sufficient sensitivity to provide precise
information about the optical constants of a thin film. This is
due to a large difference between the phase change of the
THz signal induced by the thin film and that related to the
substrate.3Thus the evaluation of transmittance related to the
thin film involves large errors. In this case, TDTRS can pro-
vide valuable information about such structures because the
radiation reflected on air–thin film–substrate interfaces is in-
dependent of the substrate thickness.
TDTRS as a spectroscopic method, and in analogy with
TDTTS, requires also a reference measurement which can be
obtained, e.g., using the reflection on a mirror with known
characteristics. The main difficulty in realization of TDTRS
then consists of correct determination of the reflectance
phase which is strongly affected by errors in the relative
position of the sample and reference mirror.4–9 Due to the
very strong dependence of the dielectric function on the re-
flectance phase, mispositioning as small as 1
m can signifi-
cantly influence the dielectric function calculated.10
In this article we present a new approach to TDTRS
designed to provide in many cases easy and accurate mea-
surement of the phase of complex reflectance. We have
tested our setup using different types of samples which were
chosen to illustrate potential application of the method. The
THz spectral range is appropriate for measurement of the
carrier scattering rate and plasma frequency of doped semi-
conductors. The first samples studied were thus two n-type
silicon wafers with different levels of doping. The next
sample was a ferroelectric ceramic, SrBi2Ta2O9SBT,
which is a very good candidate for nonvolatile ferroelectric
memories due to its polarization fatigue-free nature and low
switching voltage.11 It presents a rather strong IR-active soft
phonon mode in the frequency range studied and therefore it
cannot be investigated by TDTTS. The last sample was a thin
film of the same compound deposited on a sapphire sub-
strate; this structure allows direct comparison of the reflec-
tion and transmission measurements.
II. OVERVIEW OF THE PHASE PROBLEM
Because THz radiation is reflected directly onto the
sample surface, the phase shift induced by the sample is
much smaller than that in the transmission experiment where
it is proportional to the sample thickness. Therefore even
small errors in phase lead to appreciable errors in determina-
tion of the complex refractive index. This is demonstrated in
Fig. 1. The curves in the plane of the complex refractive
index correspond to constant values of the reflectance ampli-
tude and adjacent points correspond to the difference in re-
flectance phase induced by a 1
m shift of the sample for
frequency of 1 THz. The shape of the curve remains un-
changed for other frequencies while the spacing between the
points is proportional to the frequency. For a low absorption
index close to the real axisthe slope of the curves is almost
vertical. Therefore a small phase error leads to large errors in
the calculated absorption index. On the other hand, when the
aElectronic mail: pashkin@fzu.cz
REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS VOLUME 74, NUMBER 11 NOVEMBER 2003
47110034-6748/2003/74(11)/4711/7/$20.00 © 2003 American Institute of Physics
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refractive and absorption indices are comparable, the slope is
horizontal and errors in the real part of the refractive index
become dominant. One can also note that the points are more
dense in the case of ppolarization, which implies better sta-
bility with respect to phase errors compared to the case of s
polarization.
To avoid the problem of phase uncertainty in TDTRS,
several different approaches have been used. One of them
consists of substitution of the reference signal by a signal
reflected from the sample under specific conditions. Howells
and Schlie4have investigated the low-temperature dielectric
function of undoped InSb in this way taking as a reference
the wave form obtained at 360 K. They used the fact that the
reflectance of InSb at high temperature is comparable to that
of a silver mirror due to the narrow band gap of the material.
Thrane et al.5have measured the refractive index of liquid
water in a silicon cell using the signal reflected from the
air–silicon interface as a reference and the signal from the
silicon–water interface as a sample wave form. Such meth-
ods make use of specific sample properties and can be ap-
plied only in particular cases. Other methods similar to ellip-
sometry extract the complex dielectric function from the s-
and p-polarized THz signals reflected from the sample at
high angles of incidence.6,7 This approach provides very sat-
isfactory results in some cases. On the other hand, it requires
good quality THz polarizers and, for highly reflective
samples, it is necessary to measure under angles of incidence
close to 90°, which restricts the measurements to only large
enough homogeneous samples. In the case of TDTRS with a
reference mirror, the uncontrollable time shift of the refer-
ence pulse can be a posteriori adjusted to fit some model of
the dielectric response8or to minimize the difference be-
tween the measured and calculated interference pattern in a
silicon slab attached to the sample surface.10 The last method
does not make any assumption about the sample dielectric
behavior model, but is rather difficult to realize because there
should be good optical contact between the sample and the
slab. Recently Hashimshony et al.9have succeeded in per-
forming TDTRS measurements of epitaxial semiconductor
layers using a special sample holder which allowed replacing
the reference mirror by the sample within accuracy of 1
m.
However, this is not an easy task, and in some cases even
this precision is not sufficient for correct determination of the
dielectric function.
III. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Figure 2 shows schematically the relevant part of our
experimental setup. THz pulses are emitted by a ZnTe 011
crystal via optical rectification of amplified femtosecond la-
ser pulses wavelength 800 nm, repetition rate 1 kHzand
focused onto the sample or reference mirrorby an ellipsoi-
dal mirror. The optical sampling pulses have a variable time
delay with respect to THz pulses and serve as electro-optic
detector for the THz wave form. The key idea consists of
making the two beams coincide between the emitter and the
sample, in contrast to the usual arrangement where there is
coincidence between the sample and the sensor. In our ge-
ometry both beams propagate collinearly and reflect from the
sample surface. The sample leans on a flat surface of a cir-
cular metallic aperture at angle
with respect to the incident
beam. The aperture angle
has to be small enough
45°
/2to ensure that possible weak reflection of the THz
beam off the aperture falls away from the sensor. To maxi-
mize a clear aperture for the THz beam,
should be kept
small, however, in practice,
needs to be larger than about
10°. In this article we present results obtained for angles of
incidence
12.5° and 45°. This latter geometry depicted in
FIG. 1. Complex refractive indices corresponding to the same reflectance
amplitude of ap- and bs-polarized waves. Adjacent points correspond to
phase change equivalent to 1
m displacement of the sample. The values are
calculated for angle of incidence of 45° and frequency of 1 THz.
FIG. 2. Schemematic of the TDTRS experimental setup see the text for
details.
4712 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 74, No. 11, November 2003 Pashkin
et al.
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Fig. 2is of particular interest since it is suitable for mea-
surements in standard cryostats with perpendicular windows.
The signal reflected is detected using the electro-optic effect
by a ZnTe 011sensor which is placed directly after the
sample. Measured THz wave forms are normalized by the
voltage on a reference photodiode which is proportional to
the intensity of the sampling beam. In this way, the differ-
ence in optical reflectance between the reference mirror and
the sample is taken into account. Most measurements were
performed using p-polarized THz pulses, however, a reflec-
tivity experiment with s-polarized radiation has been also
tested.
Our arrangement is based on the setup used by Li et al.12
who took advantage of the possibility to easily change the
incidence angle to perform TDTRS of a thin film near the
Brewster angle. In our setup, a fixed angle of incidence and
reflection is used and the focusing mirror after the sample is
absent. We benefit from the major feature that displacement
of the sample changes the length of the optical path by pre-
cisely the same amount for both beams, and produces no
phase change in the measured THz wave form. To illustrate
this, we have performed measurements of the THz signal for
different positions of a gold mirror, shifting it in the way
shown by the bold arrow in Fig. 2. It has been found that
evena1mmshift from the initial position in both directions
does not change the THz wave form. Figure 3 shows the
phase differences between THz pulses measured with the
mirror shifted 10
m and 1 mm. It can be seen in Fig. 3 that
the phase error does not depend on the mirror shift. The
limiting factor for phase reproducibility is then the temporal
stability of the whole setup including the beam-pointing sta-
bility of the laser sourcerather than precise positioning of
the sample. Similarly, the setup described is not sensitive to
errors in the relative angular alignment of the sample and
reference mirror. The absence of a focusing mirror after the
sample allows us to avoid problems due to, e.g., possible
lower optical quality of the mirror surface or deviation of its
shape from the ideal one. In fact, focusing of the THz beam
onto the sensor is not necessary since standard THz experi-
ments offer a very good signal-to-noise ratio nowadays.
Suitable samples for measurement have to fulfill the fol-
lowing requirements: ihave an optically flat surface to al-
low nondiffusive specularreflection of the sampling beam
and iithe absence of secondary reflections of the sampling
beam from the rear of the sample. According to our experi-
ence, the majority of crystalline and ceramics samples can be
polished with sufficient precision to satisfy the former con-
dition. The latter one is critical for optically transparent
samples where an echo of the sampling beam reflected from
the back side of the sample adds a systematic error to the
reference photodiode voltage and is responsible for several
replicas of the THz pulse in the measured wave form. Para-
site reflections can be unambiguously detected through a rep-
lica that occurs at time tbefore the main THz pulse:
t2n2d
c
n2sin2
,1
where nis the optical refractive index of the sample and dits
thickness see Fig. 4.
This situation particularly occurs in thin films deposited
on optically transparent substrates or in dielectric single
crystals. In these cases, special precautions have to be taken:
iroughening or blackening of the back surface of the
sample; iispatial filtering of the sampling beam after the
sensor.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Doped silicon
Moderately or highly doped silicon crystals are of par-
ticular interest as test samples for the TDTRS.8,10 They have
noticeable dispersion of the complex conductivity in the THz
frequency range and knowledge of their dc conductivity pro-
vides a good possibility to verify the model fits of TDTRS
FIG. 3. Measured phase difference introduced by 10
mclosed squares
and1mmopen circlesshifts of the reference mirror in the setup in Fig. 2
with
45° and ppolarization. The classical setup, where only the THz
beam reflects off the sample, requires the sample surface to be positioned
within 1
m of the reference mirror surface in order to fit the phase inside
the area between the solid lines.
FIG. 4. THz wave forms obtained in the reflection setup for SBT thin film
on a sapphire substrate. Solid line: Sample with a blackened rear surface;
dotted line: sample without this treatment. The replica near 6 ps indicates
the presence of the sampling beam reflection at the rear surface. The differ-
ence in amplitude of the main pulses near 0 ps delayis due to the change
in sampling beam intensity and indicates the extent of error that would result
of the parasite reflection were not removed.
4713Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 74, No. 11, November 2003 Terahertz reflection spectroscopy
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spectra. Our experimental arrangement requires the optical
sampling beam to reflect from the sample surface which
seems to be undesirable for measurements of semiconduc-
tors, because of photoexcitation of additional carriers in the
sample. It means that the density of photocarriers should be
always carefully estimated during evaluation of these experi-
ments. Taking into account the sampling beam cross section
approximately 0.5 mm2, optical absorption length in silicon
10
m at 800 nm, and sampling pulse energy 0.5 nJwe
obtain photocarrier density n021014 cm3which is two
orders of magnitude smaller than the impurity concentration
in our samples. If the photocarriers are long lived, which is
the case for silicon, the laser repetition rate should be taken
into account. Let us consider a sequence of pulses with the
time separation T1 ms in our case; then the density of
carriers can be found from the following relation:
ntn0et/
n0etT/
n0et2T/
¯
n0et/
1eT/
,2
where
is the carrier lifetime. Here we neglect the diffusion
process which additionally decreases the carrier density. If
T
ln 2 which is the case for moderately and highly doped
silicon where
is smaller than 1 ms, then n(t) is increased
compared to the carrier density created by a single sampling
pulse by a factor smaller than 2. Therefore the influence of
the sampling beam can be neglected for our experimental
conditions.
In the case of direct gap semiconductors GaAs, InP,
etc., the absorption length is smaller than in indirect semi-
conductors such as silicon and n0can be higher by an order
of magnitude or more. However, due to the direct character
of the band gap, the probability of carrier recombination is
also higher, so the carrier lifetime
is appreciably smaller
and possibly
T. One can take advantage of this to adopt
the experimental approach described below. The excess car-
rier density in the sample just before the arrival of the next
sampling pulse n(T) becomes much smaller than n0:
nTn0
eT/
1.3
To achieve a THz pulse that reflects off the sample in such
conditions, it is sufficient to introduce an appropriate small
delay between the THz and sampling pulses after their re-
flection from the sample in order to make the optical path of
the THz beam between the sample and the sensor longer than
that of the sampling beam. Then, the detection system pro-
cesses information about the THz field unaffected by the
photoexcitation, since it reflects from the sample surface be-
fore the sampling pulse. For this one can insert, e.g., a 0001
sapphire slab just before the sensor sapphire is transparent
to both optical and THz radiation and induces a pulse
walkoff of 4.5 ps/mm. In order to test this approach we have
put a 0.5 mm thick sapphire plate into optical contact with
the ZnTe sensor and we have significantly increased the sam-
pling pulse energy up to 5 nJ. No change in reflectance
spectra has been observed compared to those obtained with
0.5 nJ pulse energy.
We present here a measurement of complex reflectance
spectra of two n-type phosphorus doped silicon wafers sup-
plied by ON Semiconductor-Terosil, Roz
ˇnov pod Rad-
hos
ˇte
ˇm, with specifications
dc0.128 cm sample Iand
dc0.153 cm sample IIwith possible deviations less
than 25%. The experimental data shown in Fig. 5awere
obtained with an angle of incidence
12.5° and p-polarized
radiation with the 0.5 mm sapphire delay plate. The ampli-
tude and phase of the measured reflectance were fitted using
the Drude model.10 Figure 5bshows the dielectric function
and conductivity calculated from the experimental data and
those using the Drude model. The fits yield two independent
parameters: the free-electron mobility
and concentration
Ncthe dielectric constant of undoped silicon
Si11.66 is
taken as a fixed value. From these values, the dc resistivity
can be calculated using the formula
dc(
Nce0)1, where
e0is the elementary charge. One finds
1160 cm2/V s,
Nc4.01016 cm3, and
dc0.135 cm for the sample I
and
1270 cm2/V s, Nc2.81016 cm3, and
dc
FIG. 5. aComplex reflectance at
12.5°, ppolarization and bdielec-
tric function and conductivity of
doped silicon samples. Points: Experi-
mental data; lines: fits using the Drude
model.
4714 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 74, No. 11, November 2003 Pashkin
et al.
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0.175 cm for the sample II. The values of the electron
mobilities are consistent with those published previously for
similar samples.8,10 The dc resistivity values match the sup-
plier’s specifications.
B. SBT ceramics
SBT is a promising material for application in ferroelec-
tric memories and has been extensively investigated espe-
cially during the last few years. A study of IR reflectance
revealed a rather strong polar phonon mode below 30 cm1
at room temperature.13 However, this frequency range is
barely accessible for Fourier transform IR FTIRspectros-
copy the signal from the source is weakand the measured
power reflectance allows one to obtain the complex permit-
tivity only by fitting with a model dielectric function. There-
fore direct measurement of the complex permittivity can be
useful for correction and improvement of FTIR data.
We have studied the reflectance of SBT ceramics using
three different arrangements: i12.5° incidence and ppolar-
ization, ii45° incidence and ppolarization, and iii45°
incidence and spolarization. The measured complex reflec-
tance and calculated permittivity of SBT ceramics together
with a fit of FTIR reflectance are presented in Fig. 6. From
the fit we have found the soft-mode frequency
0
28 cm1, damping
012 cm1, and dielectric strength
081. It has to be pointed out that the peak in the relative
phase which occurs near 40 cm1for SBT corresponds to the
frequency of a longitudinal phonon mode, while the imagi-
nary part of the permittivity dielectric losspeaks at the
position of transverse resonance at
0. One can see that
TDTRS is able to reproduce correctly the mode structure at
higher frequencies and brings valuable information down to
at least 10 cm1. The complex permittivities measured in
different arrangements are in agreement with each other,
which demonstrates the reliability of the technique pre-
sented.
C. SBT thin film
A 5.5
m thick SBT film on a 0001sapphire substrate
has been characterized in reflection as well as in transmission
geometry. For the transmission measurements, the THz pulse
transmitted through the bare sapphire substrate was used as a
reference and the complex permittivity was numerically cal-
culated in a standard way. The reflection measurement was
performed using p-polarized THz pulses 45° incident on the
sample with a blackened back surface to avoid the above-
mentioned multiple reflection of the optical sampling beam
inside the sapphire substrate see Fig. 4. The complex re-
flectance was calculated taking into account only the THz
pulse reflected from the front surface of the sample. Fabry–
Pe
´rot interference inside the substrate was cut off time win-
dowing. An additional correction was made to take into ac-
count multiple reflections of the sampling beam inside the
film. Usually the thickness of thin films is smaller than 1
m
and the delay of the sampling beam echoes is negligible
compared to the duration of the sampling pulse typically
50–100 fs. In our case film thickness d5.5
m) special
care has to be taken in order to deconvolute the influence of
Fabry–Pe
´rot reflections of the sampling beam inside the film.
The time delay of the sampling pulse needed for its propa-
gation back and forth through the film can be calculated
using Eq. 1. We deduced the optical refractive index of
SBT from
obtained by FTIR measurements on SBT ce-
ramics: n2.45; the corresponding time delay is t
94 fs. Thus the sampling pulse is divided into a sequence
of pulses with decreasing amplitude which are separated in
time. The detected THz wave form can be written in the form
of
yty0tay0tt¯
1a¯,4
where y0(t) is the deconvoluted wave form free of artifacts
due to multiple reflections of the sampling beam, and a
0.025 is the ratio of the intensities of the first two sampling
pulses calculated using Fresnel equations. The denominator
of Eq. 4accounts for normalization of the signal by the
voltage of the reference photodiode. In view of the small
value of a, all higher order terms in Eq. 4can be neglected.
FIG. 6. Complex reflectance and dielectric permittivity of SBT ceramics
from TDTRS measurements. aComplex reflectance for
12.5°, ppolar-
ization; amplitude; phase. bDielectric function; cdielectric loss;
12.5°, ppolarization;
45°, ppolarization,
45°, spo-
larization; solid lines: fit of the FTIR reflectance data based on the sum of
damped harmonic oscillators.
4715Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 74, No. 11, November 2003 Terahertz reflection spectroscopy
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Transforming Eq. 4into the frequency domain and dividing
it by the spectrum of the reference pulse we obtain for the
complex reflectance
r0
r
1a
1aei
t,5
where r(
) is the measured reflectance and r0(
) the cor-
rected one which should be used for the evaluation of dielec-
tric properties. This correction mainly leads to changes in the
imaginary part of the permittivity. In the case of SBT film it
increases the value of the dielectric loss peak by about 7%.
The complex permittivity was calculated by numerically
solving a system of two equations derived by Berreman14
which relates the complex reflectance of a thin film on a
substrate at an arbitrary angle of incidence to the dielectric
constants of the thin film and substrate.
The resulting complex permittivity obtained from both
transmission and reflection measurements and a fit of the
transmission data by two damped harmonic oscillators are
shown in Fig. 7. The fit yields the following parameters of
the soft mode:
028 cm1,
026 cm1, and
054.
For comparison we also show the complex permittivity cal-
culated from the amplitudes of the reflectance and transmit-
tance disregarding the respective phases. We would like to
stress three points.
1The transmission data can comprise large errors in the
static value of the permittivity and in the strength of
modes due to the uncertainty in substrate thickness.3In
contrast, the substrate thickness does not play any role in
the reflection experiment. Hence, one can use, e.g., the
static value of the dielectric function determined by the
reflection experiment for small corrections within 1 or 2
mof the substrate thickness: trial substrate thicknesses
can be used during the transmission data evaluation in
order to match the resulting permittivity to that obtained
from reflectance. Such an approach has been used to
evaluate the transmission data shown in Fig. 7.
2Evaluation of the complex permittivity using reflectance
and transmittance amplitudes is indeed possible; more-
over it does not require the value of the substrate thick-
ness for transparent substrates. However, our experience
shows that the results obtained by this method are not as
accurate as the results of phase sensitive methods note
the appreciable error in the imaginary part of the permit-
tivity in Fig. 7.
3The data obtained from the transmission measurement
using the above-described procedure fulfill slightly bet-
ter the Kramers–Kronig relations than those obtained
from the reflectance only. In this respect, if the substrate
thickness is very precisely known, the transmission ex-
periment seems to provide slightly more accurate data
for this film. The transmission and reflection experiments
are thus complementary in this sense and their combina-
tion allows unambiguous determination of the dielectric
strength of the polar modes detected.
In summary, we have introduced a new approach for
TDTRS which allows precise measurement of the dielectric
function from reflectivity measurements. We have solved the
key phase problem; as a result, the phase is independent of
the relative position of the sample and reference mirror. This
feature makes the method attractive also in situations where
it is not possible to precisely align the sample holder, which
is the case, e.g., in temperature-dependent measurements. We
have shown that this method can be successfully applied to
the characterization of a variety of materials.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education
of the Czech Republic Project No. LN00A032,bythe
Grant Agency of the Czech Republic Project No. 202/01/
0612, and by the Volkswagen Stiftung Grant No. I/75908.
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4717Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 74, No. 11, November 2003 Terahertz reflection spectroscopy
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... However, when dealing with opaque objects that are too thick or have a high dielectric loss for allowing the measurement in transmission mode, the reflection geometry represents the only option. In this configuration, the phase measurement suffers of higher uncertainty, because of displacement in the relative positioning of reference and sample objects [12] [13]. This represents a major experimental constraint for THz reflection measurements. ...
... In Terahertz Time-Domain Reflection Imaging (THz-TDRI), the phase shift is induced by the combined-effect of dispersive properties of material and geometrical distortion of the object. Moreover, the magnitude of the time traces drops when the reflective surface deviates from the optimized focus position, while additional signal losses might occur due to optical misalignment between the reflected beam and the collecting parabolic mirror [13]. Because in time-domain spectroscopy the spatial and spectral dependencies are coupled [14] [15], the object distortion has the undesirable consequence of modifying both the amplitude and the phase of the reflected electric field in the frequency-domain. ...
... The spatial phase variation problem has been broadly discussed in literature given the importance of the reflection configuration, and very diverse methodologies have been proposed for phase correction. The majority of these methods have limited application to THz spectroscopy, as the problem is addressed considering the shift in sample position, under the requirement of optically flat object, or using elaborated mathematical approaches or specific instrumental components to remove it [13] [27] [28] [29]. For example, in reflection imaging application, an approach that has been proposed for solving spatial distortion entails the use of laser triangulation system for either precisely adjusting in real-time the distance between THz head and the object, following the shape of the surface, or by conducting multiple planar scans and interpolating them with theoretical model for obtaining virtual scanning surfaces [30]. ...
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In this work, we develop a method for removing the phase drift induced by physically distorted object in Terahertz Time-Domain Reflection Imaging (THz-TDRI). The proposed approach is defined as self-referenced, as it does not rely on any numerical parameter optimization nor extra-instrumental components, and it is based on the unique manipulation of time-domain imaging data. In fact, we demonstrate that the problem can be solved assuming a linear contribution of the temporal shift induced by surface curvature. We illustrate how the self-referenced method is modelled and implemented, and we report the results obtained on two objects with different characteristics: a tilted and highly reflective surface, and a warped and heterogeneous surface. The proposed method demonstrates how to successfully remove the phase alterations induced on the reflected electric field, and how to repair the heavily corrupted images in the frequency-domain.
... In this regard, it is worthwhile mentioning that THz timedomain spectroscopy (TDS) represents so far a privileged technique for material characterization in the low THz range [23][24][25]. However, most of the existing works report THz-TDS characterizations in transmission mode (see, e.g., [25] and references therein) whereas significantly fewer exploit the reflection mode [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] (a rigorous analysis for a general realization of THz-TDS in reflection mode is also provided in [34]). Among these works, [26,27] make use of a highresistivity silicon sample as reference in order to avoid the phase-sensitivity issues of metal mirrors [28][29][30]. ...
... However, most of the existing works report THz-TDS characterizations in transmission mode (see, e.g., [25] and references therein) whereas significantly fewer exploit the reflection mode [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] (a rigorous analysis for a general realization of THz-TDS in reflection mode is also provided in [34]). Among these works, [26,27] make use of a highresistivity silicon sample as reference in order to avoid the phase-sensitivity issues of metal mirrors [28][29][30]. Generally, reflection-mode THz-TDS relaxes the need for THz transparent substrates (for instance germanium [31]), while it was demonstrated to provide similar [26] or even better [32] accuracy compared to transmission measurements on the estimation of THz graphene conductivity. ...
... The fact that we only use the amplitude spectra allows for circumventing the aforementioned phase sensitivity issue without requiring the compensation and calibration techniques described in [28,30]. Moreover, the proposed technique allows for the characterization of graphene in THz applications that employ metal-backed resonant cavities [35] and either continuous [36] or patterned sheets of graphene or other 2D materials [37]. ...
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A theoretical and experimental framework for the characterization of the terahertz (THz) conductivity of graphene on metal-backed substrates is presented. Analytical equations are derived for the general problem of oblique incidence of the THz beam in a time-domain spectroscopic (TDS) setup working in reflection. The recorded time-domain signals are post-processed in order to retrieve the substrate thickness, its dielectric dispersion, and the complex graphene conductivity, which is described by a generalized Drude-Smith model. The method is tested on two samples of chemical vapor deposited graphene, transferred on polyethylene terephthalate and cyclo-olefin polymeric substrates of sub-millimetric thickness, and characterized by Raman spectroscopy. By working only with the amplitude spectra, the proposed method circumvents issues stemming from phase uncertainties that typically affect TDS measurements in reflection mode. More important, it allows for a rapid, nondestructive characterization of graphene sheets that can be directly integrated in the production flow of graphene-based passive or active components employing metal-backed resonant cavities, such as THz absorbers, metasurface lenses, or leaky-wave antennas.
... The THz was focused onto the sample/reference using a 100 mm off-axis paraboloidal mirror. The f =100 mm mirror had a 1 mm hole drilled through it, such that the probe beam collinearly propagated with the THz radiation before impinging on the sample/reference at an incident angle of 45° [39]. A 300 µm thick Gallium Phosphide (GaP) electro-optic crystal was positioned close to the sample/reference surface to capture as much of the reflected light as possible. ...
... In our reflectivity setup we removed the systematic phase error, due to the displacement between the sample and reference positions, using a configuration similar to that reported by Pashkin [39]. A side effect of this configuration is that the power ratio for the reflected probe beam off the sample and the reference needs to be measured accurately for the absolute values of the refractive index and the absorption coefficient to be valid. ...
Article
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We report on THz time-domain spectroscopy measurements of flux grown KTiOPO4 in the frequency range 0.6–7.0 THz (20 to 240 cm⁻¹). Our results compare well with earlier Raman and far-infrared measurements. We theorize that the differences between the optical phonon mode resonances reported in the literature are due to what growth parameters and melt compositions are used to grow the crystals. We also report on a new feature at 1.4 THz (47 cm⁻¹).
... Here, the genetic algorithm (GA) is adopted. 28 Instead of directly minimizing the transfer function error, the unavoidable height-mismatch between sample and reference introduces a phase uncertainty (i.e., pulse shift in time) that needs to be compensated, 29 expressed as D/ x ð Þ ¼ xs, where s is the shift in time. Practically, the pulse shift also comes from the systematical pulse jittering in fiber-based THz-TDS. ...
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Spectroscopic ellipsometry is a high-precision and powerful optical characterization technique, which can be categorized into two fundamental types of standard and generalized ellipsometry. The latter can obtain the complete Jones matrix to investigate various anisotropic samples. However, terahertz generalized ellipsometry has traditionally relied on frequency-domain instrumentation, which is limited in bandwidth, complicated in polarization manipulation, and slow in operation. In this study, we propose a highly accurate and efficient terahertz time-domain generalized ellipsometer based on a polarization beam coupler-splitter configuration. It measures four independent complex spectra in real-time without mechanical movement, providing ultrahigh data throughput. Each polarizer-antenna unit constructively superimposes their filtering effect, resulting in a 45–65 dB extinction ratio that approaches the system dynamic range. The superb illumination and detection linearity provides an outstanding polarization accuracy and eliminates the need for complicated calibration. Reflection characterization of the magneto-optical properties of an InAs wafer demonstrates the generalized ability to simultaneously obtain multiple dielectric functions. Transmission ellipsometric imaging of liquid crystals subjected to an inhomogeneous electric field further highlights the excellent efficiency. The proposed technique significantly expands the capabilities of terahertz spectroscopy, paving ways to anisotropic materials, in situ monitoring, and polarization-sensitive devices.
... In reflection measurements, a key experimental challenge is to acquire a reference measurement where the sample is replaced by a flat metal reflector located at the same position. Typically, the change in phase due to reflection is small compared with, for example, the phase acquired by transmitting through a slab -even a small phase shift from a positioning error of the reference reflector can lead to notable errors in the extracted material parameters 48 . An alternative approach is to use a relatively thick transparent window as a superstrate and simultaneously measure reflection from the air-window interface and the time-delayed window-sample interface in the same waveform. ...
... To tackle the phase offset uncertainty issues, a great deal of effort has been made in the THz spectroscopy community. For instance, Pashkin et al. designed a special THz reflection spectrometer where the optical probe and THz beams maintain the same beam path lengths and thus introduce minimal phase shift uncertainty [29]. Window materials with precisely known refractive indices and thicknesses were utilized for taking reference and sample waveform measurements at front and back interfaces, thereby minimizing the phase uncertainty [30]. ...
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We demonstrate that the conductivity of graphene on thin-film polymer substrates can be accurately determined by reflection-mode air-plasma-based THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The phase uncertainty issue associated with reflection measurements is discussed, and our implementation is validated by convincing agreement with graphene electrical properties extracted from more conventional transmission-mode measurements. Both the reflection and transmission THz-TDS measurements reveal strong non-linear and instantaneous conductivity depletion across an ultra-broad bandwidth (1–9 THz) under relatively high incident THz electrical field strengths (up to 1050 kV/cm).
... [12][13][14] This configuration, in fact, adds some constrains related to the great sensitivity to any phase misalignment between the sample and reference measurement, and to the reduced signal intensity due to scattering and multiple signal losses. 15 While the phase shift of the THz signal in transmitting measurements is introduced by the optical properties of the sample placed between the THz generator and detector, reflection measurements require the physical replacement of the sample with a mirror for determining the reference signal. This replacement often yields to experimental complications, and it introduces uncertainty in the phase shift due the spatial misalignment between sample and mirror. ...
Article
This work demonstrates terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) in reflection configuration on a class of inorganic and mineral pigments. The technique is validated for pictorial materials against the limitations imposed by the back-reflection of the THz signal, such as weak signal intensity, multiple signal losses and distortion, as well as the current scarce databases. This work provides a detailed description of the experimental procedure and method used for the determination of material absorption coefficient of a group of 10 pigments known to be used in ancient frescoes, that are, Cu-based (azurite, malachite, and Egyptian blue), Pb-based (minium and massicot), Fe-based (iron oxide yellow, dark ochre, hematite, and Pompeii red) pigments and mercury sulfide (cinnabar), and classified the vibrational modes of the molecular oxides and sulfides for material identification. The results of this work showed that the mild signal in reflection configuration does not limit the application of THz-TDS on inorganic and mineral pigments as long as (i) the THz signal is normalized with a highly reflective reference sample, (ii) the secondary reflected signals from inner interfaces are removed with a filtering procedure, and (iii) the limitations at high frequencies imposed by the dynamic range of the instrument are considered. Under these assumptions, we were able to differentiate molecular phases of the same metal and identify azurite, Egyptian blue, minium, and cinnabar, isolating the molecular vibrations up to 125 cm-1. The established approach demonstrated to be reliable, and it can be extended for the study of other materials, well beyond the reach of the heritage domain.
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We demonstrate that the conductivity of graphene on thin-film polymer substrates can be accurately determined by reflection-mode air-plasma-based THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The phase uncertainty issue associated with reflection measurements is discussed, and our implementation is validated by convincing agreement with graphene electrical properties extracted from more conventional transmission-mode measurements. Both the reflection and transmission THz-TDS measurements reveal strong nonlinear and instantaneous conductivity depletion across an ultra-broad bandwidth under relatively high incident THz electrical field strengths.
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The history of RF technology can provide human beings a powerful lesson that the infrastructure of modern-day wireless communication depends on the complexity and configurability of silicon-based solid-state devices and integrated circuits. The field of THz technology is undergoing a developmental revolution which is at an inflection point and will bridge the ‘technology’ and ‘application’ gap in meaningful ways. This quantitative progress is a result of continuous and concerted efforts in a wide range of areas including solid-state devices, 2D materials, heterogeneous integration, nanofabrication and system packaging. In this chapter, the innovative theoretical approaches that have enabled significant advancement in the field of system-level THz technology are discussed. The focus is kept on the formulation of terahertz conductivity which plays a critical role in the modeling of devices that integrate technologies across electronics and photonics. Further, the findings build on coupling a probe pulse of terahertz illumination into the photoexcited region of amorphous silicon are presented and discussed in detail. Terahertz light has a higher penetration depth for opaque semiconductor materials which provides an accurate method to measure the conductivity of novel materials for the construction of efficient solar cells. This paves the way for the possibility to develop energy systems can address the need for reconfigurability, adaptability and scalability beyond the classical metrics.
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Ellipsometry is extensively used in the optical regime to investigate the properties of many materials as well as to evaluate with high precision the surface roughness and thickness of thin films and multilayered systems. Due to the inherent non-coherent detection technique, data analyses in optical ellipsometry tend to be complicated and require the use of a predetermined model, therefore indirectly linking the sample properties to the measured ellipsometric parameters. The aim of this tutorial is to provide an overview of terahertz (THz) time-domain ellipsometry, which is based instead on a coherent detection approach and allows in a simple and direct way the measurement of the material response. After giving a brief description of the technology presently used to generate and detect THz radiation, we introduce the general features of an ellipsometric setup operating in the time domain, putting in evidence similarities and differences with respect to the classical optical counterpart. To back up and validate the study, results of THz ellipsometric measurements carried out on selected samples are presented.
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Polarized microscope observation of ferroelastic domains in a SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT) single crystal reveals the presence of domains up to Tc1[similar, equals]770 K, which supports the ferroelasticity and Amam symmetry of the intermediate phase between ferroelectric and paraelectric phases. Far-infrared spectra of SBT ceramics, single crystal and thin films show a well underdamped optical soft mode at 28 cm-1, which partially softens to 21 cm-1 near the ferroelectric transition temperature (Tc2[congruent with]600 K). This softening does not explain the entire anomaly of low-frequency permittivity observed near Tc2. On the basis of high-frequency measurements, which do not show a significant dispersion, central-mode-type dispersion in the 10-100 GHz range is proposed as an explanation. So, the phase transition at Tc2 apparently shows a crossover behavior between the displacive and the order-disorder type.
Article
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We present a free-space time-domain method to measure the dielectric property of thin film on substrate in the GHz–THz frequency range. The concept is based on the phase flip of the field wave form for near-Brewster angle reflection. Realizing this concept, we demonstrate the determination of the dielectric constant of a thin polymer film at a few micrometer thickness on the silicon wafer. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.
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We have measured the dielectric properties and thickness of thin semiconductor epitaxy layers by the reflection of THz radiation from the surface of a two-layered semiconductor wafer. When reflecting from two interfaces the electromagnetic pulse has a destructive interference at a specific wavelength dependent on the thickness of the outer layer and its dielectric function. Near that frequency the reflection coefficient has a significant drop. By extending the incident pulse spectrum to include this interference frequency, a measurement of the thickness can be obtained together with a direct measurement of the carrier number density. By this technique epitaxy layers of thickness down to 15 m are characterized. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.
Article
We report an investigation of the temperature-dependent far-infrared spectrum of liquid water. We have employed a new experimental technique based on ultrashort electromagnetic pulses (THz pulses). This technique allows for fast and reliable data of both index of refraction and absorption coefficient for highly absorbing liquids. The temperature dependence reveals an enthalpy of activation corresponding to 2.5 kcal/mol, in agreement with recent Raman experiments, but lower than the enthalpy observed in dielectric relaxation experiments. This demonstrates that part of the orientational relaxation in liquid water takes place without breaking of hydrogen bonds with bonding energy of 5 kcal/mol, as suggested in recent theoretical model.
Article
Thin flat films of cubic ionic crystals have sharp, strong infrared absorption bands at the frequencies characteristic of polar longitudinal optic modes of long wavelength in infinite crystals. The bands occur only when the incident radiation beam is not normal to the surface and only in the p-polarized component of the radiation. They occur not only in transmission through the films, but also in reflection when the films are deposited on thick metallic or dielectric substrates. Such a band was observed in films of LiF and was found to be in good qualitative agreement with, but somewhat stronger than, the band predicted from a dielectric dispersion curve obtained from other types of measurements by Bilz, Genzel, and Happ.
Article
Using transient terahertz reflection spectroscopy, the far‐infrared (0.1–1.1 THz) reflection amplitude and associated phase change upon reflection from undoped InSb was measured between 80 and 260 K. Using the Drude model, the transient terahertz data were fit by adjusting the values for the electron mobility and carrier concentration. The close agreement between the data and model validates using the Drude model to describe the electronic and optical properties of InSb below 1 THz. These results suggest a possible application of transient terahertz reflection spectroscopy for measuring semiconductor properties of thick samples without surface contact. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.
Article
We propose and demonstrate a terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy combined with ellipsometry. The complex optical constants of a Si wafer with low resistivity are deduced from the measurements of the wave forms of reflected s- and p-polarized THz pulses without reference measurement. The obtained dispersion of refractive index above ∼ 0.2 THz shows good agreement with that predicted by the Drude theory. The complex optical constants deduced by the THz ellipsometry in the low-frequency region are strongly affected by the slight error of the ellipsometric angle originating mainly from the misalignment of the rotation angles of the polarizer and analyzer. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.
Article
We present reflection THz-time domain spectroscopy measurements of the complex conductivity of n-type, 0.038 Ω cm GaAs and n-type, 0.22 Ω cm Si wafers. These measurements clearly demonstrate the efficacy of the reflection technique on highly conductive, optically dense samples and approach the precision of THz–TDS transmission measurements. Because the THz-bandwidth, reflection measurements extend beyond the carrier collision frequency, we obtain direct measures of the mobility and the carrier number density. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.
Article
The concept of effective soft mode in thin films and its role in the effective dielectric response of high-permittivity thin films is introduced. Compared to bulk soft mode response, it may be strongly influenced by stresses from the substrate and dielectric inhomogeneities like interface layers, grain boundaries and porosity. The available techniques for the determination of the effective soft-mode response (far-infrared and time-domain THz spectroscopies) are discussed. The experiments on various ferroelectric (PbTiO 3, PZT, BaTiO 3, SrBi 2 Ta 2 O 9 ), incipient ferroelectric (SrTiO 3 ), doped incipient ferroelectric (SrTiO 3 :Ba), and relaxor ferroelectric (PLZT) films are briefly reviewed and compared with the results in bulk materials.
Article
A SIGNIFICANT fraction of the computer memory industry is at present involved in the manufacture of non-volatile memory devices1—that is, devices which retain information when power is interrupted. For such applications (and also for volatile memories), the use of capacitors constructed from ferroelectric thin films has stimulated much interest1. In such structures, information is stored in the polarization state of the ferroelectric material itself, which should in principle lead to lower power requirements, faster access time and potentially lower cost1. But the use of ferroelectrics is not without problems; the memories constructed to date have generally suffered from poor retention of stored information and degradation of performance ('fatigue') with use1–3. Here we describe the preparation and characterization of thin-film capacitors using ferroelectric materials from a large family of layered perovskite oxides, exemplified by SrBi2Ta2O9, SrBi2NbTaO9 and SrBi4Ta4O15. The structural flexibility of these materials allows their properties to be tailored so that many of the problems associated with previous ferroelectric memories are avoided. In particular, our capacitors do not show significant fatigue after 1012 switching cycles, and they exhibit good retention characteristics and low leakage currents even with films less than 100 nm thick.