Department of Physics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 20057, United States.
Nano Lett. 2012 Jun 13;12(6):3097-100. doi: 10.1021/nl300975h. Epub 2012 Jun 5.
Terahertz technology has recently emerged as a highly sought-after and versatile scientific tool in many fields, including medical imaging, security screening, and wireless communication. However, scientific progress has been hindered by the lack of sources and detectors in this frequency range, thereby known as the terahertz gap. Here, we show that carbon nanotube quantum dots coupled to antennas are extremely sensitive, broad-band, terahertz quantum detectors with spectral resolution. Their response is due to photon-assisted single-electron tunneling and it is substantially enhanced by a novel radiation-induced nonequilibrium cooling of the electrons, causing a sharp height increase of the Coulomb oscillation peaks.
太赫兹技术最近在包括医学成像、安全检查和无线通信在内的多个领域成为一种备受追捧的多功能科学工具。然而，由于该频率范围内缺乏光源和探测器，这一现象被称为太赫兹间隙，从而阻碍了科学的进步。在这里，我们展示了与天线耦合的碳纳米管量子点是一种具有极宽带宽和太赫兹量子探测能力的光谱分辨率探测器。其响应是由于光辅助单电子隧道效应，并且通过一种新颖的辐射诱导电子非平衡冷却得到了显著增强，导致库仑振荡峰的高度急剧增加。
