Tunable, high peak power terahertz radiation from optical rectification of a short modulated laser pulse

Daniel F. Gordon*, Antonio Ting, Ilya Alexeev, Richard Fischer, Phillip Sprangle, Christos A. Kapetenakos, Arie Zigler

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

A new way of generating high peak power terahertz radiation using ultra-short pulse lasers is demonstrated. The optical pulse from a titanium:sapphire laser system is stretched and modulated using a spatial filtering technique to produce a several picosecond long pulse modulated at the terahertz frequency. A collinear type II phase matched interaction is realized via angle tuning in a gallium selenide crystal. Peak powers of at least 1.5 kW are produced in a 5 mm thick crystal, and tunability is demonstrated between 0.7 and 2.0 THz. Simulations predict that 150 kW of peak power can be produced in a 5 mm thick crystal. The technique also allows for control of the terahertz bandwidth.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6813-6822
Number of pages10
JournalOptics Express
Volume14
Issue number15
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006

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