Terahertz refractive anisotropy on femtosecond laser pulse ablated semi-insulating gallium arsenide surface

We present an artificial variation of THz refractive index ellipse from isotropy to anisotropy at the surface of -oriented semi-insulating gallium arsenide (SI-GaAs) via femtosecond pulse laser ablation. The refractive index ellipse is determined by the frequency and the polarization of incident THz radiation. The THz wave is localized in the gap of columns of micro-ripples when the polarization of THz is parallel to the micro-ripples, while no electric energy localization occurs when the polarization of THz is perpendicular to the micro-ripples. We found that the laser ablation process can induce a periodic distribution of n-type GaAs at the surface of SI-GaAs. These n-type GaAs micro-ripples work as plasmonic resonators, which are proposed to be the origin of the induced refractive index anisotropy.