Carrier dynamics in ion-implanted GaAs studied by simulation and observation of terahertz emission

We have studied terahertz (THz) emission from arsenic-ion implanted GaAs both experimentally and using a three-dimensional carrier dynamics simulation. A uniform density of vacancies was formed over the optical absorption depth of bulk GaAs samples by performing multienergy implantations of arsenic ions (1 and 2.4 MeV) and subsequent thermal annealing. In a series of THz emission experiments the frequency of peak THz power was found to increase significantly from 1.4 to 2.2 THz when the ion implantation dose was increased from 10¹³ to 10¹⁶ cm⁻³. We used a semiclassical Monte Carlo simulation of ultrafast carrier dynamics to reproduce and explain these results. The effect of the ion-induced damage was included in the simulation by considering carrier scattering at neutral and charged impurities, as well as carrier trapping at defect sites. Higher vacancy concentrations and shorter carrier trapping times both contributed to shorter simulated THz pulses, the latter being more important over experimentally realistic parameter ranges.