Bulk films and heterostructures based on HgCdTe compounds can be engineered to fabricate “gapped-at-will” structures. Therefore, 1D [1], 2D [2] and even 3D [3] massless particles can be observed in topological phase transitions driven by intrinsic (quantum well thickness, Cd content) and external (magnetic field, temperature or pressure) physical parameters. So far, the phases of 2D [1] and 3D [4] topological insulator have already been experimentally demonstrated in HgCdTe-based heterostructures. More recently, clear experimental evidence of the existence of 3D electronic states with conical-like spectrum was obtained in HgCdTe bulk films at specific Cd content [3]. These 3D massless particles, called Kane fermions, have unique symmetry properties, which are not equivalent to any well-known case of massless particles in the ultrarelativistic limit of the quantum electrodynamics. In this talk, I will report our recent results on topological phase transitions driven by external physical parameters in HgCdTe-based QWs, as well as the first experimental demonstration of the rest-mass collapse of Kane fermions induced by temperature in HgCdTe bulk films.

We report on Terahertz detection by inverted band structure HgTe-based Field Effect Transistor. Photoconductivity measurements allow for the observation of cyclotron resonance and Shubnikov-de-Haas-like oscillations. However, an unexpected peak was observed at the critical magnetic field value for which zero mode Landau Levels are crossing. Therefore, this specific feature of TeraHertz photoconductivity spectra can tentatively attributed to this magnetic field driven topological phase transition.

We report terahertz measurements on bulk HgCdTe crystals at the semiconductor- to-semimetal topological transition and InAs/GaSb inverted band structure quantum well. We show that physical parameters of these narrow gap systems driven in specific topological phases can be efficiently extracted by means of terahertz photoconductivity studies.

This paper presents terahertz detectors based on high performance 0.7-μm InP double heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) technology and reports on the analysis of their voltage responsivity over a wide frequency range of the incoming terahertz radiation. The detectors operated without any spatial antennas to couple terahertz radiation to the device and have been characterized in the 0.25 - 3.1 THz range with the responsivities (normalized to 1 W radiant power) of 5 V/W and 200 μV/W measured at 0.35 THz and 3.11 THz, respectively. The InP DHBTs also performed as the imaging single-pixels at room temperature in the raster scanned transmission mode. A set of the sub-terahertz images of plant leaves suggest potential utility of InP DHBT detectors for terahertz imaging dedicated to non-invasive testing of plants.

We report on terahertz photoconductivity under magnetic field up to 16 T of field effect transistor based on HgTe quantum well (QW) with an inverted band structure. We observe pronounced cyclotron resonance and Shubnikov-de Haas-like oscillations, indicating a high mobility electron gas in the transistor channel. We discover that nonlinearity of the transistor channel allows for observation of characteristic features in photoconductivity at critical magnetic field corresponding to the phase transition between topological quantum spin Hall and trivial quantum Hall states in HgTe QW. Our results pave the way towards terahertz topological field effect transistors.