With the massive advantages of THz radiation and the current technical difficulties in mind, I have chosen to undertake research into terahertz surface phenomena, which is the focal point of my thesis. Ultrathin surface terahertz emitters have many advantages as they have an extremely thin active region, typically hundreds of atomic layers. In this framework, III-V semiconductors, such as InAs and InSb, have record-breaking conversion efficiencies per unit thickness. In addition, the phase mismatch, which commonly limits the generation of terahertz from optical crystal, is negligible and so there is an opportunity for enhancing the emitted bandwidth. My thesis is born as the core of many research interests of my research lab (Emergent Photonics), which enabled the appropriate availability of resources that made my results possible. It also created several spin-out research lines. All the work presented is my work (with the exception of the background research). Parts of chapters have been published in journals and publications which see me as the first author. The structure of this thesis is as follows. First I discuss optical pump rectification emission, and the saturation of InAs terahertz emissions. Then I introduce my work on terahertz enhancement emission through graphene. Finally, I present my work on an exotic terahertz emission mechanism, namely the all-optical surface optical rectification and I place my concluding remarks.