Terahertz electromagnetic radiation from Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy intrinsic Josephson junction stack

We have observed terahertz (THz) electromagnetic wave radiation from Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJ) stacks using high sensitive detector made of a small IJJ mesa. In this study, we focused on the THz radiation from a few hundred IJJs. We fabricated the IJJ oscillator and detector. The oscillators consist of 55 ∼ 300 IJJs with the lateral dimensions of 290 ¥ 50 μm2. The current-voltage characteristics of the IJJ oscillators showed a negative resistance accompanied with large hysteresis. The THz radiation was observed for several samples when the oscillator was biased at some current in the negative resistance region. We attribute the observed radiation to synchronized emission from many IJJs in the stack and find the emission frequency corresponds to the in-phase cavity resonance frequency.