Highly efficient terahertz emission from layered ZrTe5 crystal with strong anisotropy and high in-plane carrier mobility

Abstract Intense, polarization controllable, and single-cycle terahertz pulses as light source are important tools to investigate physical and biological properties of materials. In this paper, we have detected efficient terahertz emission from layered transition-metal pentatelluride ZrTe5 excited by femtosecond laser pulse due to its strong anisotropy and high mobility of electrons. The physical mechanism of terahertz generation from this material is studied and the absolute predominance of diffusion current induced by photo-Dember effect is proved. In addition, we have achieved the modulation of terahertz polarization by adjusting the polarization states of the pump pulse. The generated elliptically polarized THz pulse is crucial for the investigation of vibration modes of chiral biological molecules, such as proteins and DNAs. Our findings indicate that strong and polarization-controllable THz emission can be generated by ZrTe5.