Terahertz wave avalanche breakdown transistor for high-performance switching

There is still a lack of high-performance terahertz (THz) modulators with wide operation bandwidth and large modulation depth due to the underlying physics limitation behind existing approaches. Meanwhile, for many applications, simple compact THz modulators working straightforward in the transmission mode are also highly desired. Here, we demonstrate a THz modulator with a maximal transmission-amplitude modulation depth of 99.9% (switching ratio of 1000) based on a commonly used silica-on-silicon structure. Different from those reported graphene or metamaterials enhanced proposals, the device we proposed works within a reversible avalanche breakdown region of silicon that has not been studied yet and has the potential to modulate/switch THz waves efficiently. Further, we proved that the modulation depth exceeds 97% in the frequency range from 0.2 to 1 THz in the experiment. The simplicity and generality of this new type of near-perfect THz modulator will undoubtedly attract lots of attention of researchers in the near future due to its potential to be engineered into integrated devices.