Using synchronized near-infrared (NIR) and terahertz (THz) lasers, we have
performed picosecond time-resolved THz spectroscopy of transient carriers in
semiconductors. Specifically, we measured the temporal evolution of THz
transmission and reflectivity after NIR excitation. We systematically
investigated transient carrier relaxation in GaAs and InSb with varying NIR
intensities and magnetic fields. Using this information, we were able to
determine the evolution of the THz absorption to study the dynamics of
photocreated carriers. We developed a theory based on a Drude conductivity with
time-dependent density and density-dependent scattering lifetime, which
successfully reproduced the observed plasma dynamics. Detailed comparison
between experimental and theoretical results revealed a linear dependence of
the scattering frequency on density, which suggests that electron-electron
scattering is the dominant scattering mechanism for determining the scattering
time. In InSb, plasma dynamics was dramatically modified by the application of
a magnetic field, showing rich magneto-reflection spectra, while GaAs did not
show any significant magnetic field dependence. We attribute this to the small
effective masses of the carriers in InSb compared to GaAs, which made the
plasma, cyclotron, and photon energies all comparable in the density, magnetic
field, and wavelength ranges of the current study.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.