Intense Terahertz Excitation of Semiconductors presents the first comprehensive treatment of high-power terahertz applications to semiconductors and low-dimensional semiconductor structures. Terahertz properties of semiconductors are in the center of scientific activities because of the need of high-speed electronics. This research monograph bridges the gap between microwave physics and photonics. It focuses on a core topic of semiconductor physics providing a full description of the state of the art of the field.
The reader is introduced to new physical phenomena which occur in the terahertz frequency range at the transition from semi-classical physics with a classical field amplitude to the fully quantized limit with photons. The book covers a wide range of optical, optoelectronic, and nonlinear transport processes, presenting experimental results, clearly visualizing models and basic theories. Background information for future work and exhaustive references of current literature are given. A particularly valuable feature is the thorough discussion of various technical aspects of the terahertz range like the generation of high-power coherent radiation, optical components, instrumentation, and detection schemes of short intense pulses. The book complements, for the first time in form of a monograph, previous books on infrared physics which dealt with low-power optical and opto-electronic processes. It will be useful not only to scientists but also to advanced students who are interested in terahertz research.