Abstract
Investigations of ultrafast electrical transients generated in semiconductors using optical pulses have been carried out since the early development of ultrashort pulse lasers. The generation of THz radiation from picosecond and femtosecond transient electrical currents represents just one of the important offshoots of the field of ultrafast optoelectronics. However, the underlying physics, and scope of the various mechanisms which can lead to current generation by optical pules have not been well understood. Here we show how emitted THz radiation can be used as a probe to deduce the salient signatures of the three lowest order, physically distinct, processes that are associated with all-optical current generation in GaAs. We refer to these as rectification, shift and injection currents.
© 2002 Optical Society of America
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