Published papers

We experimentally show that continuously changing polarity of an elliptically-polarized terahertz electric-field can be used to image a height profile of semiconductors, metals, and their hybrid samples with a depth resolution of similar to 1 mu m.

We demonstrate control of the confined-state energies of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) grown on prepatterned substrates. The InGaAs/AlGaAs QDs self-order at the apex of self-limiting, inverted pyramids whose locations are fixed by lithography. The confinement energy in the dots is systematically varied across the substrate by changing the pattern of the pyramid array in their vicinity. The resulting energy- and site-controlled QDs show systematic and reproducible shifts of their emission wavelengths as well as antibunched photon emissions from confined single excitons. Such QDs should be useful for applications in quantum information processing and quantum communication devices, e.g., multiple-wavelength single-photon emitters. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

We develope a method to express wave functions of hole states in semiconductor quantum wire (QWR) structures based on spatial variation of the valence p-orbital Bloch functions, to show how envelope wave functions relate to polarization-dependent interband transition. A wave function of a hole state is obtained solving the Schrodinger equation based on the 4 x 4 Luttinger Hamiltonian, and then recomposed by means of six bases of three p-orbital Bloch functions with two spin components. As a result, the hole wave function is expressed by six envelope wave functions for the six bases, Then. interband optical transition matrix elements with x-, y-, and z-polarizations are separately given by overlap integrals between envelope wave functions of holes for p(x), p(y), and p(z) orbitals and those of electrons. We also calculate the wave functions for a modeled ridge QWR structure with mirror symmetry as well as for an asymmetric structure, and discuss the polarization dependence of the optical transition.

We provide a frequency-domain picture of the electro-optic (EO) detection of elliptically polarized terahertz radiation utilizing the crystal angle dependence of the EO effect using zinc blende crystal symmetry. In contrast to EO detection of a linearly polarized terahertz pulse, the measured EO signal would not be a replica of the terahertz pulse, even though the phase-matching condition is completely fulfilled. However, the rotation of the EO crystal reduces the complexity, and the ellipticity and the angle of rotation of each frequency component of the elliptically polarized terahertz pulse can be determined irrespective of what kind of zinc blende crystals are used for the EO detection. We experimentally show that the ellipticity and angle of rotation are reproducibly obtained by using three different crystals with different thicknesses and compositions. Direct detection of the elliptically polarized terahertz radiation enables us to precisely determine the optical axis and retardation of a quartz crystal using the Poincare sphere representation of the state of polarization. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America

We propose and develop a method to quickly and precisely determine the polarization direction of coherent terahertz electromagnetic waves generated by femtosecond laser pulses. The measurement system consists of a conventional terahertz time-domain spectroscopy system with the electro-optic (EO) sampling method, but we add a new functionality in the EO crystal which is continuously rotating with the angular frequency omega. We find a simple yet useful formulation of the EO signal as a function of the crystal orientation, which enables a lock-in-like detection of both the electric-field amplitude and the absolute polarization direction of the terahertz waves with respect to the probe laser pulse polarization direction at the same time. The single measurement finishes around two periods of the crystal rotations (similar to 21 ms), and we experimentally prove that the accuracy of the polarization measurement does not suffer from the long-term amplitude fluctuation of the terahertz pulses. Distribution of the measured polarization directions by repeating the measurements is excellently fitted by a Gaussian distribution function with a standard deviation of sigma = 0.56 degrees. The developed technique is useful for the fast direct determination of the polarization state of the terahertz electromagnetic waves for polarization imaging applications as well as the precise terahertz Faraday or Kerr rotation spectroscopy. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3683570]

電気光学結晶の対称性を利用して、テラヘルツ電磁波のベクトル波形を正確に抽出するアルゴリズムを考案し、実験検証した。

We introduce a method of polarization-sensitive dual-comb spectroscopy. This technique is a combination of dual-comb spectroscopy and rotating compensator polarimetry, in which the rotation frequency of the compensator is optimized to establish the frequency sidebands of each comb tooth. Thus, we can determine the polarization state of each comb tooth by analyzing the amplitudes and phases of the sidebands. For a frequency resolution of 48 MHz and a measurement time of 726.5 s, the precisions of the orientation and the ellipticity angles of the individual comb teeth are similar to 0.01 rad. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America.

We investigated polarization-sensitive electro-optic (EO) detection of terahertz (THz) waves by using two uniaxial crystals: a c-cut gallium selenide and a c-cut lithium niobate crystals. We formulated a general frequency-domain description of EO detection by in-plane isotropic EO crystals, which holds regardless of the frequency. Based on this description, the polarization of THz waves can be derived by analyzing EO sampling signals measured with two orthogonal configurations of the in-plane isotropic EO crystals as well as typical (111) zinc-blende EO crystals. In addition, we experimentally demonstrated that the frequency-dependent polarization of THz waves can be reproducibly retrieved using three EO crystals with different crystal symmetries and with different phase matching conditions. Our description provides essential information for practical polarization sensing in the THz frequency range as well as in the mid-infrared range. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.

We review our recent works on polarization-sensitive electro-optic (PS-EO) sampling, which is a method that allows us to measure elliptically-polarized terahertz time-domain waveforms without using wire-grid polarizers. Because of the phase mismatch between the employed probe pulse and the elliptically-polarized terahertz pulse that is to be analyzed, the probe pulse senses different terahertz electric-field (E-field) vectors during the propagation inside the EO crystal. To interpret the complex condition inside the EO crystal, we expressed the expected EO signal by “frequency-domain description” instead of relying on the conventional Pockels effect description. Using this approach, we derived two important conclusions: (i) the polarization state of each frequency component can be accurately measured, irrespective of the choice of the EO crystal because the relative amplitude and phase of the E-field of two mutually orthogonal directions are not affected by the phase mismatch; and, (ii) the time-domain waveform of the elliptically-polarized E-field vector can be retrieved by considering the phase mismatch, absorption, and the effect of the probe pulse width. We experimentally confirm the above two conclusions by using different EO crystals that are used for detection. This clarifies the validity of our theoretical analysis based on the frequency-domain description and the usefulness of PS-EO sampling.

Thermally induced structural changes in polymeric materials are usually accompanied by a change of vital properties such as mechanical stability. We demonstrate an emerging technique for real-time monitoring of thermally induced structural changes of poly(lactic acid) (PLA). The technique is based on terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) because spectra of the dielectric function of PLA in the terahertz frequency range reflect macroscopic molecular vibration modes which are strongly linked to the PLA morphology and structure. By comparison with conventional X-ray diffraction data, we confirm a strong correlation between the polymer structure and the spectra of the dielectric function. We achieve real-time monitoring of two essential thermally induced structural changes: the cold crystallization process from amorphous phase to the crystalline α-phase and the glass transition process. The proposed technique is useful for understanding the structural changes in polymeric materials induced by thermal treatments and holds promise for nondestructive inspection of polymeric products in a contactless manner.

We propose and demonstrate a polarization-sensitive dual-comb spectroscopy (DCS) technique that employs an electro-optic modulator for determining the anisotropic optical responses of materials. This straightforward extension of the typical DCS setup directly provides amplitudes and phases in two mutually orthogonal directions of the electric field of light. Using this method, we determined the optic axis direction and the anisotropy in the complex refractive index of a sample whose optical parameter is well defined. We estimate a birefringence of the sample to be 5.49(55)×10-5 at a comb tooth in the 780 nm region.

Distribution of electronic states inside ridge quantum-wire (QWR) laser cavity was investigated using spatially and spectrally resolved top-view photoluminescence (PL) imaging method. PL inhomogeneity in QWR has shown that the electronic states were perturbed by the fluctuation of vertical thickness in the scale of similar to nm, while the optical waveguide was not. The PL images of QWR were traced up to the lasing condition to examine the lasing origin. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)00541-0].

We have investigated the highly nonlinear terahertz (THz) light-matter interaction in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The high-peak THz electric- field (similar to 0.7 MV/cm) and the low effective mass of carriers result in their ponderomotive energy exceeding the bandgap energy of semiconducting SWNTs. Under such an intense THz pulse irradiation, the interband excitation that results in the generation of excitons occurs, although the THz photon energy (similar to 4 meV) is much smaller than the gap energy of SWNTs (similar to 1 eV). The ultrafast dynamics of this exciton generation process is investigated by THz pump and optical probe spectroscopy. The exciton generation mechanism is described by impact excitation process induced by the strong THz E-field. Such intense THz pulse excitation provides a powerful tool to study nonlinear terahertz optics in non-perturbative regime as well as nonlinear transport phenomena in solids with ultrafast temporal resolution. (c) 2011 Optical Society of America

A novel technique for tuning the strength of quantum confinement in site-controlled semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) is introduced and investigated theoretically and experimentally. The method makes use of controlled local growth rates during metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on patterned arrays of inverted pyramids. A model accounting for precursor migration and adatom incorporation predicts the tuning in QD thickness as a function of the pattern parameters. The results are in good agreement with experimental findings. This technique offers means for designing QD photonic structures with potential applications in QD-based cavity quantum electrodynamics and quantum information processing.

© 2018 by the authors. We discuss the internal status of rubber composites consisting of an insulating rubber matrix and conductive carbon black (CB) fillers ("black rubber") using polarization-sensitive terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The black rubber composites under stretched conditions exhibit a large optical anisotropy or birefringence in the terahertz regime. From systematic studies, it is revealed that the large birefringence of black rubbers is due to the orientation distribution of anisotropically shaped CB aggregates in the rubber matrix and the orientation distribution is strongly linked to the mechanical deformation of the black rubber. A model simulation based on this relation between deformation and reorientation allows conversion of the birefringence (optical) information into strain (mechanical) information. In addition, the spectroscopic information obtained using the THz-TDS technique is useful to evaluate the changes in the internal conductive filler network caused by the mechanical deformation. Our findings demonstrate that the terahertz polarization spectroscopy is a promising nondestructive inspection method for contactless investigation of the

テラヘルツ分光を用いて黒色ゴム内部の定量的な歪みイメージングに成功した。

We have developed a magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) imaging system with a charge-coupled-device (CCD) camera by using the rotating compensator technique. We chose optimal conditions of the rotation frequency of the compensator with stable rotation along with a CCD camera frame rate that allowed precise control of the exposure timing in order to link with the angle of the compensator. Precise timing management of the CCD exposure enables us to carry out repeated experiments, which greatly improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the longitudinal MOKE signal. We applied the technique to the material characterization of the Ni-81 Fe-19 thin film and its microstructure, and succeeded in evaluating the spatial variation of the complex magneto-optic constant Q of the sample. Because of its attractive advantages such as high-speed and compactness, the present method provides a novel platform for investigating the domain structures in various magnetic materials. (C) 2017 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

A linearly polarized electromagnetic wave is found to form divergent and rotation fields after focused by an off-axis parabolic mirror. These distributions are generated within a subwavelength scale around the focus and at times when the electric field at the focus vanishes. We theoretically and experimentally show that not only the direction but also the structure of the distributions varies with the incident polarization. In addition, the distributions move in one direction with a phase velocity faster than the speed of light.