Manifestation of Kinetic Inductance in Terahertz Plasmon Resonances in Thin-Film CdAs.

Three-dimensional (3D) semimetals have been predicted and demonstrated to have a wide variety of interesting properties associated with their linear energy dispersion. In analogy to two-dimensional (2D) Dirac semimetals, such as graphene, CdAs has shown ultrahigh mobility and large Fermi velocity and has been hypothesized to support plasmons at terahertz frequencies. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate synthesis of high-quality large-area CdAs thin films through thermal evaporation as well as the experimental realization of plasmonic structures consisting of periodic arrays of CdAs stripes. These arrays exhibit sharp resonances at terahertz frequencies with associated quality factors ( Q) as high as ∼3.7 (at 0.82 THz). Such spectrally narrow resonances can be understood on the basis of a long momentum scattering time, which in our films can approach ∼1 ps at room temperature. Moreover, we demonstrate an ultrafast tunable response through excitation of photoinduced carriers in optical pump/terahertz probe experiments. Our results evidence that the intrinsic 3D nature of CdAs might provide for a very robust platform for terahertz plasmonic applications. Moreover, the long momentum scattering time as well as large kinetic inductance in CdAs also holds enormous potential for the redesign of passive elements such as inductors and hence can have a profound impact in the field of RF integrated circuits.