Abstract

We show that the interface between gold and thermally formed cuprous oxide, which emits terahertz radiation when illuminated with ultrafast femtosecond lasers, is in fact an $\mathrm{AuCu}/{\mathrm{Cu}}_2\mathrm{O}$ interface due to the formation of the thermal diffusion alloy AuCu. The alloy enables the formation of a Schottky-barrier-like electric field near the interface which is essential to explain the THz emission from these samples. We confirm the formation of this AuCu layer by x-ray diffraction measurements, ellipsometry, and visual inspection. We determined the frequency-dependent complex refractive indices of the ${\mathrm{Cu}}_2\mathrm{O}$ and AuCu layer and verified them using reflection spectroscopy measurements. These refractive indices can be used for optimizing the thickness of ${\mathrm{Cu}}_2\mathrm{O}$ for maximum THz emission from these interfaces.

© 2014 Optical Society of America

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