INTERBAND IMPACT IONIZATION BY TERAHERTZ ILLUMINATION OF INAS HETEROSTRUCTURES

Experimental studies of InAs heterostructures illuminated by far‐infrared (FIR) radiation reveal an abrupt increase in the charge density for FIR intensities above a threshold value that rises with increasing frequency. We attribute this charge density rise to interband impact ionization in a regime in which ωτm∼1, where τm is the momentum relaxation time, and f=ω/2π is the FIR frequency. The dependence of the density rise on the FIR field strength supports this interpretation, and gives threshold fields of 3.7–8.9 kV/cm for the frequency range 0.3–0.66 THz.