Smith–Purcell Radiation from Highly Mobile Carriers in 2D Quantum Materials

Abstract

AbstractTerahertz (THz) radiation has broad applications ranging from medical imaging to spectroscopy. One viable source of high‐intensity THz radiation is the Smith–Purcell (SP) effect, which involves charge carriers moving over a periodic surface. Conventional SP emitters use electron beams to generate charge carriers, necessitating bulky electron acceleration stages. Here, a compact design for generating THz SP radiation using mobile charge carriers within 2D materials is proposed. This circumvents the beam alignment and beam divergence challenge, allowing for a reduction in the electron‐grating separation from tens of nm to 5 nm or less, leading to more efficient near‐field excitation and a potentially chip‐level THz source. In such a configuration, it is shown that the optimal electron velocity and the corresponding maximum radiation intensity can be predicted from the electron‐grating separation. The numerical demonstration shows that hot electrons can excite SP radiation in graphene on a silicon grating, and the radiation intensity can be increased by graphene surface plasmons. This study can be extended to a broad variety of charge carriers in 2D materials, thus allowing for compact, tunable, and low‐cost THz sources.