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Real-space coherent manipulation of electrons in a single tunnel junction by single-cycle terahertz electric fields

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 762–765 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

The ultrafast coherent manipulation of electrons using waveform-controlled laser pulses1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 is a key issue in the development of modern electronics10,11. Developing such an approach for a tunnel junction will provide a new platform for governing ultrafast currents on an even smaller scale, which will be indispensable for the advancement of next-generation quantum nanocircuits12,13,14,15 and plasmonic devices16,17,18. Here, we demonstrate that carrier-envelope-phase-controlled single-cycle terahertz electric fields can coherently drive electron tunnelling either from a nanotip to a sample or vice versa. Spatially confined electric fields of more than 10 V nm–1 strongly modulate the potential barrier at a nanogap in a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) on the subpicosecond timescale and can steer a large number of electrons in an extremely nonlinear regime, which is not possible using a conventional STM. Our results are expected to pave the way for the future development of nanoscale science and technologies.

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Figure 1: Experimental set-up of the THz-STM.
Figure 2: Effect of CEP on the motion of tunnelling electrons.
Figure 3: Current saturation under strong electric fields.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (numbers 15H05734, 16H03820, 16H04001 and 16H06010) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and by the Strategic Information and Communications R&D Promotion Programme (SCOPE #145003103) of Japan Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, 240-8501, Japan

    Katsumasa Yoshioka, Ikufumi Katayama, Yasuo Minami, Masahiro Kitajima & Jun Takeda

  2. LxRay Company Limited, Nishinomiya, 663-8172, Japan

    Masahiro Kitajima

  3. Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, 305-8571, Japan

    Shoji Yoshida & Hidemi Shigekawa

Authors
  1. Katsumasa Yoshioka
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  2. Ikufumi Katayama
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  3. Yasuo Minami
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  4. Masahiro Kitajima
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  5. Shoji Yoshida
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  6. Hidemi Shigekawa
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  7. Jun Takeda
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Contributions

I.K., M.K., H.S. and J.T. conceived and coordinated this project. K.Y. designed and built the THz-STM set-up. K.Y. and Y.M. developed the intense THz generation system, and K.Y. and S.Y. constructed the operation program of the STM. K.Y. carried out the experiments and simulations with support from I.K., Y.M. and S.Y., and H.S., M.K. and J.T. contributed to the initial concept of the experiments. K.Y. and J.T. wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors.

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Correspondence to Ikufumi Katayama, Hidemi Shigekawa or Jun Takeda.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Yoshioka, K., Katayama, I., Minami, Y. et al. Real-space coherent manipulation of electrons in a single tunnel junction by single-cycle terahertz electric fields. Nature Photon 10, 762–765 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.205

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