Congratulations to Carmen Zaitz!

Carmen Zaitz received an award for her bachelor thesis in Energy Science. She investigated during her studies the fabrication and characterization of 2D heterostructures, which consist of different, atomically thin layers of semiconducting materials.

On the cover

Our work on nonlinear THz absorption in graphene disks is published now in the journal Advanced Photonics Research:

Plasmonic Terahertz Nonlinearity in Graphene Disks

When the graphene disks are excited by strong THz pulses with the right frequency, the optical properties are altered extremely fast. In the past, mostly thermal effects were reported; this is the first study that observes a nonlinear absorption beyond thermal effects. This leads to remarkable differences, in particular when circularly polarized radiation is exploited, which is illustrated on the cover.

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Welcome to Ahana Bhattacharya

The Mittendorff group welcomes one new member: Ahana Bhattacharya just started a six months stipend for her investigations in the field of THz spectroscopy.

Review on 2D THz optoelectronics got published in Advanced Optical Materials:

2D THz Optoelectronics

Martin Mittendorff, Stephan Winnerl, Thomas E. Murphy

Abstract:

The terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum spans the gap between optics and electronics and has historically suffered from a paucity of optoelectronic devices, in large part because of inadequate optical materials that function in this spectral range. 2D materials, including graphene and a growing family of related van der Waals materials, have been shown to exhibit unusual optical and electrical properties that can enable diverse new applications in the THz regime. In this review, some of the unusual properties of 2D materials that make them promising for THz applications are explained, the recent work in the field of 2D THz optoelectronics is summarized, and the challenges and opportunities that await this promising new field are outlined.

https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202001500