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Graphene/hBN heterostructures are promising active materials for devices in the THz domain, such as emitters and photodetectors based on interband transitions. Their performance requires long carrier lifetimes. However, carrier recombination processes in graphene possess sub-picosecond characteristic times for large non-equilibrium carrier densities at high energy. An additional channel has been recently demonstrated in graphene/hBN heterostructures by emission of hBN hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhP) with picosecond decay time. Here, we report on carrier lifetimes in graphene/hBN Zener-Klein transistors of ~30 ps for photoexcited carriers at low density and energy, using mid-infrared photoconductivity measurements. We further demonstrate the switching of carrier lifetime from ~30 ps (attributed to interband Auger) down to a few picoseconds upon ignition of HPhP relaxation at finite bias and/or with infrared excitation power. Our study opens interesting perspectives to exploit graphene/hBN heterostructures for THz lasing and highly sensitive THz photodetection as well as for phonon polariton optics. Long carrier lifetimes are beneficial for graphene-based optoelectronics, but carrier recombination processes in graphene possess sub-picosecond characteristic times. Here, the authors report carrier lifetimes ~30 ps at low energy in graphene/hBN Zener-Klein transistors, attributed to interband Auger processes.

The control of light-matter interaction at the most elementary level has become an important resource for quantum technologies. Implementing such interfaces in the THz range remains an outstanding problem. Here, we couple a single electron trapped in a carbon nanotube quantum dot to a THz resonator. The resulting light-matter interaction reaches the deep strong coupling regime that induces a THz energy gap in the carbon nanotube solely by the vacuum fluctuations of the THz resonator. This is directly confirmed by transport measurements. Such a phenomenon which is the exact counterpart of inhibition of spontaneous emission in atomic physics opens the path to the readout of non-classical states of light using electrical current. This would be a particularly useful resource and perspective for THz quantum optics. Strong light-matter coupling has been realized at the level of single atoms and photons throughout most of the electromagnetic spectrum, except for the THz range. Here, the authors report a THz-scale transport gap, induced by vacuum fluctuations in carbon nanotube quantum dot through the deep strong coupling of a single electron to a THz resonator.

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have recently attracted considerable attention, with appealing properties for terahertz (THz) technology. This includes the demonstration of large thermal bolometric effects in GQDs when illuminated by THz radiation. However, the interaction of THz photons with GQDs in the Coulomb blockade regime - single electron transport regime - remains unexplored. Here, we demonstrate the ultrasensitive photoresponse to THz radiation (from <0.1 to 10 THz) of a hBN-encapsulated GQD in the Coulomb blockade regime at low temperature (170 mK). We show that THz radiation of \\(\\sim\\)10 pW provides a photocurrent response in the nanoampere range, resulting from a renormalization of the chemical potential of the GQD of \\(\\sim\\)0.15 meV. We attribute this photoresponse to an interfacial photogating effect. Furthermore, our analysis reveals the absence of thermal effects, opening new directions in the study of coherent quantum effects at THz frequencies in GQDs.

Electromagnetic resonators, which are based on optical cavities or electronic circuits, are key elements to enhance and control light-matter interaction. In the THz range, current optical cavities exhibit very high-quality factors with \\((\\lambda/2)^3\\) mode volumes limited by diffraction, whereas resonant electronic circuits show low quality factor but provide strong subwavelength effective volume (\\(10^{-6} \\lambda^3\\)). To overcome the limitations of each type of resonator, great efforts are being devoted to improving the performances of current methods or to the emergence of original approaches. Here, we report on an optical resonator based on Tamm modes newly applied to the THz range, comprising a metallic layer on a distributed Bragg reflector and demonstrating a high-quality factor of 230 at \\(\\sim\\)1 THz. We further experimentally and theoretically show a fine-tuning of the Tamm mode frequency (over a 250 GHz range) and polarization sensitivity by subwavelength structuration of the metallic layer. Electromagnetic simulations also reveal that THz Tamm modes are confined over a \\(\\lambda\\)/2 length within the distributed Bragg reflector and can be ideally coupled to both bulk materials and 2D materials. These THz Tamm cavities are therefore attractive as basic building blocks of lasers, for the development of advanced THz optoelectronic devices such as sensitive detectors, high-contrast modulators, narrow filters, and polarizers, as well as for THz cavity quantum electrodynamics in nanostructures.

In a Josephson junction, the current phase relation relates the phase variation of the superconducting order parameter, \\(\\varphi\\), between the two superconducting leads connected through a weak link, to the dissipationless current . This relation is the fingerprint of the junction. It is usually dominated by a \\(\\sin(\\varphi)\\) harmonic, however its precise knowledge is necessary to design superconducting quantum circuits with tailored properties. Here, we directly measure the current phase relation of a superconducting quantum interference device made with gate-tunable graphene Josephson junctions and we show that it can behave as a \\(\\sin(2\\varphi)\\) Josephson element, free of the traditionally dominant \\(\\sin(\\varphi)\\) harmonic. Such element will be instrumental for the development of superconducting quantum bits protected from decoherence.