Terahertz emission from metal nanoparticle array

Abstract

We demonstrate theoretically that ultrafast heating of metal nanoparticles by the laser pulse should lead to the generation of coherent terahertz (THz) radiation during the heat redistribution process. It is shown that after the femtosecond laser pulse action, the time-dependent gradient of the electronic temperature induces low-frequency particle polarization with the characteristic timescale of about fractions of a picosecond. In the case of the directed metallic pattern, the THz pulse waveform can be controlled by changing the geometry of the particle. The proposed THz generation mechanism can be the basis for interpretation of recent experiments with metallic nanoparticles and nanostructures.