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Using a spatiotemporal terahertz radiation imaging technique, we visualize photogenerated metallic inhomogeneity in the charge-ordered insulating phase of Pr$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ thin film. We reveal that photogenerated metallic regions with micrometer length scales within the charge-ordered insulating matrix are created on subpicoseond time scales. Such an inhomogeneity becomes homogeneous when the laser power and bias voltage are increased. The observed photogenerated metallic regions would act as nucleus of the insulator-metal transition observed in Pr$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$., Comment: 10 pages including 3 figures

We study macroscopically-aligned single-wall carbon nanotube arrays with uniform lengths via polarization-dependent terahertz and infrared transmission spectroscopy. Polarization anisotropy is extreme at frequencies less than $\sim$3 THz with no sign of attenuation when the polarization is perpendicular to the alignment direction. The attenuation for both parallel and perpendicular polarizations increases with increasing frequency, exhibiting a pronounced and broad peak around 10 THz in the parallel case. We model the electromagnetic response of the sample by taking into account both radiative scattering and absorption losses. We show that our sample acts as an effective antenna due to the high degree of alignment, exhibiting much larger radiative scattering than absorption in the mid/far-infrared range. Our calculated attenuation spectrum clearly shows a non-Drude peak at $\sim$10 THz in agreement with the experiment., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

Low-dimensional carbon nanostructures, such as single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and graphene, offer new opportunities for terahertz science and technology. Being zero-gap systems with a linear, photon-like energy dispersion, metallic SWCNTs and graphene exhibit a variety of extraordinary properties. Their DC and linear electrical properties have been extensively studied in the last decade, but their unusual finite-frequency, nonlinear, and/or non-equilibrium properties are largely unexplored, although they are predicted to be useful for new terahertz device applications. Terahertz dynamic conductivity measurements allow us to probe the dynamics of such photon-like electrons, or massless Dirac fermions. Here, we use terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to investigate terahertz conductivities of one-dimensional and two-dimensional electrons, respectively, in films of highly aligned SWCNTs and gated large-area graphene. In SWCNTs, we observe extremely anisotropic terahertz conductivities, promising for terahertz polarizer applications. In graphene, we demonstrate that terahertz and infrared properties sensitively change with the Fermi energy, which can be controlled by electrical gating and thermal annealing., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures

We describe a film of highly-aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes that acts as an excellent terahertz linear polarizer. There is virtually no attenuation (strong absorption) when the terahertz polarization is perpendicular (parallel) to the nanotube axis. From the data we calculated the reduced linear dichrosim to be 3, corresponding to a nematic order parameter of 1, which demonstrates nearly perfect alignment as well as intrinsically anisotropic terahertz response of single-walled carbon nanotubes in the film., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures

We have deposited c-axis oriented thin films of La1.5Dy0.5CaBa2Cu5Oz (La-2125) tetragonal superconductor on LaAlO3 (001) by Pulsed Laser Deposition. These films were irradiated with 200 MeV Ag+15 ions. Atomic Force Microscopy and Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis indicate that the irradiation has created columnar defects along the entire thickness (2000 A) of these films. With ion irradiation up to 1*10^11 ions/cm2, the critical current density (Jc(H)) is found to enhance by almost five folds, which is attributed to the augmented flux pinning by the columnar defects. A further increase in irradiation to 1*10^12 ions/cm2 causes reduction in Jc(H) due to distorted morphology of the film. Our work shows that the enhancement in Jc (H) of the irradiated La-2125 film is comparable to that in irradiated RE-123. Also, as the La-2125 type films have greater chemical stability than RE-123 (RE = rare earth ion), La-2125 type superconductors are potential candidates for applications. Interesting to note that there are partial flux jumps observed to occur symmetrically in the magnetic hysteresis of irradiated La-2125 thin films with enhanced Jc(H)., Comment: 13 pages including 4 figures

A combined study with use of time-domain pump-probe spectroscopy and time-domain terahertz transmission spectroscopy have been carried out on an underdoped Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+{\delta}}$ thin film. It was observed that the low energy multi-excitation states were decomposed into superconducting gap and pseudogap. The pseudogap locally opens below $T^*{\simeq}210$ K simultaneously with the appearance of the high-frequency partial pairs around 1.3 THz. With decreasing temperature, the number of the local domains with the partial phase coherence increased and saturated near 100 K, and the macroscopic superconductivity appeared below 76 K through the superconductivity fluctuation state below 100 K. These experimental results indicate that the pseudogap makes an important role for realization of the superconductivity as a precursor to switch from the partial to the macroscopic phase coherence., Comment: Revtex4, 4 pages, 4 figures

Terahertz (THz) radiation with its spectrum extending up to 1 THz has been observed by an illumination of femtosecond optical pulses to optical switching devices fabricated on magnetoresistive manganite thin films; Pr$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$. The THz radiation strongly depends on temperature $T$ and its $T$ trend reverses sign across charge-orbital and spin ordering $T$'s., Comment: Revtex4, 4 pages including 3 figures

Direct experimental estimations of the low-energy ($1.5\sim10$ meV) complex dielectric constants spectrum and its temperature variation have been investigated for La$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ thin films using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. At low temperatures, a clear Drude-term emerges. With increasing temperature, the scattering rate increases, while the plasma frequency decreases, derived both from a simple Drude model. Finally, a Drude-term submerges well below the insulator-metal transition temperature. On the basis of the present results, low-energy charge dynamics are discussed., Comment: REVTeX 13 pages, 3 figures