Quantitative comparison of terahertz emission from (100) InAs surfaces and a GaAs large-aperture photoconductive switch at high fluences.

InAs has previously been reported to be an efficient emitter of terahertz radiation at low excitation fluences by use of femtosecond laser pulses. The scaling and saturation of terahertz emission from a (100) InAs surface as a function of excitation fluence is measured and quantitatively compared with the emission from a GaAs large-aperture photoconductive switch. We find that, although the instantaneous peak radiated terahertz field from (100) InAs exceeds the peak radiated signals from a GaAs large-aperture photoconductive switch biased at 1.6 kV/cm, the pulse duration is shorter. For the InAs source the total energy radiated is less than can be obtained from a GaAs large-aperture photoconductive switch.