Ultrafast laser-induced plasma anisotropy in pristine and surface pre-structured zinc telluride, probed by terahertz pulses

Abstract

We use THz probe pulses to detect and analyze the dynamics of charge transport anisotropies generated by ultrafast laser two-photon absorption in Zinc Telluride (ZnTe) semi-insulating crystal showing smooth and laser structured surfaces. The detected anisotropy consists in a modulation of the THz transmission as a function of the orientation of the <001 > axis of ZnTe. The change in THz transmission after pump excitation is attributed to free carrier absorption of the THz field in the laser-induced electron-hole plasma. Pre-structuring the surface sample with laser-induced periodic surface structures (ripples) has strong influence on free carrier THz transmission and its associated anisotropic oscillation. Within the relaxation dynamics of the laser-induced free carriers, two relaxation times have to be considered in order to correctly describe the dynamics, a fast relaxation, of about 50 picoseconds in pristine sample (90 picoseconds in sample pre-structured with ripples), and a slow one, of about 1.5 nanoseconds. A theoretical model based on classical Drude theory and on the dependence of the two-photon absorption coefficient with the crystal orientation and with the laser polarization is used to fit the experimental results.