Detection of terahertz radiation from longitudinal optical phonon–plasmon coupling modes in InSb film using an ultrabroadband photoconductive antenna

Terahertz radiation from longitudinal optical (LO) phonon–plasmon coupling modes in InSb films is observed using an ultrafast photoconductive antenna detector. We demonstrate a response frequency of up to 7 THz for a low-temperature-grown GaAs-based photoconductive antenna gated with 25 fs laser pulses. It is found that the emission frequencies of the coupling modes are dependent only on the residual carrier density, not on the excitation carrier density. It is also found that the LO phonon–plasmon oscillations in semiconductors can serve as an efficient THz source.