Quadrupole radiation from terahertz dipole antennas

We report what is to our knowledge the first detailed investigation of the polarization state of radiation from lens-coupled terahertz dipole antennas. The radiation exhibits a weak but measurable component that is polarized orthogonally to the orientation of the emitter dipole. The angular radiation pattern of this cross-polarized emission reveals that it is quadrupolar, rather than dipolar, in nature. One can understand this result by taking into account the photocurrent flowing in the strip lines that feed the dipole antenna. A Fresnel-Kirchhoff scalar diffraction calculation is used for calculating the frequency-dependent angular distribution of the radiation pattern, providing satisfactory agreement with the measurements.     

Characterization of the radiation from single-walled zig-zag carbon nanotubes at terahertz range

This paper investigates the radiation characteristics of metal single-walled zig-zag carbon nanotubes as a dipole antenna at terahertz wave range. The current distribution, input impedance and mutual impedance are calculated for various geometrical parameters of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes. The numerical results demonstrate the properties of the antenna depending strongly on the geometrical parameters such as the radius, the lengths of carbon nantobues, and the spacing between nanotubes. It is found that the zig-zag carbon nanotubes exhibit very high input impedance and the mutual impedances for antenna array applications. These unique high impedance properties are different from the conventional metal thin wire antenna. The far-field patterns and gain of antenna array are also calculated. The maximum gain of array of 100-element array is up to 20.0~dB, which is larger than the gain of 0.598~dB of single dipole antenna at distance d = 0.5\lambda .     

Femtosecond undulator radiation from sliced electron bunches

At the 1.7-GeV electron storage ring BESSY II, a first source of synchrotron radiation with 100 fs pulse duration, variable (linear and circular) polarization, tunable photon energy (300 to 1400 eV), and excellent signal-to-background ratio was constructed and is now in routine operation.     

An intense terahertz radiation source at the Compact ERL

The Compact ERL is an energy recovery LINAC (ERL) test facility that is planned for KEK. The circumference of the recirculation path will be 70 m. Initially, the beam energy will be about 65 MeV and the current about 10 mA. Although the primary purpose of the machine is to aid the development of the key technologies that are essential for building an ultra-brilliant new synchrotron light source based on an ERL, the Compact ERL itself has great potential as an intense source of terahertz radiation. To generate the intense terahertz radiation, an electron bunch of a very short bunch length is required and bunch compression is inevitable. We discuss the parameters of the Compact ERL, present the results of a simulation of bunch compression, and make an estimate of the generated coherent synchrotron radiation.     

紧凑型THz源的史密斯-帕塞尔辐射模拟

 采用模拟和数值计算的方法,研究了THz波段的受激史密斯-帕塞尔辐射特性。实验装置以“上海电子束离子阱”为原型,采用紧凑型设计以便最终实现其可移动性。束流动力学模拟表明,此装置采用强磁场,可以得到平均流强为0.2 A、束流半径为75 μm的高品质电子束,为电子束工作在自由电子激光模式下创造了条件。基于Andrews和 Brau的理论,优化了光栅参数,保证了辐射角度在60°。其中消散场的计算频率为0.365 9 THz。采用particle-in-cell(PIC)程序模拟了光栅表面的辐射场以及电子的动力学特性。模拟结果表明电子有群聚效应,且二次谐波（0.723 THz,约为消散频率的2倍）得到增强。采用后处理方法计算了史密斯-帕塞尔辐射的功率空间分布。计算显示辐射角度与理论角度相一致,表明了方法的有效性。输出的功率约为2 mW。     

High-power terahertz radiation from surface-emitted THz-wave parametric oscillator

We report a pulsed surface-emitted THz-wave parametric oscillator based on two MgO:LiNbO3 crystals pumped by a multi-longitudinal mode Q-switched Nd:YAG laser.Through varying the phase matching angle,the tunable THzwave output from 0.79 THz to 2.84 THz is realized.The maximum THz-wave output was 193.2 nJ/pulse at 1.84 THz as the pump power density was 212.5 MW/cm 2,corresponding to the energy conversion efficiency of 2.42×10-6 and the photon conversion efficiency of about 0.037%.When the pump power density changed from 123 MW/cm 2 to 148 MW/cm 2 and 164 MW/cm 2,the maximum output of the THz-wave moved to the high frequency band.We give a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon.     

Producing terahertz coherent synchrotron radiation at the Hefei Light Source

This paper theoretically proves that an electron storage ring can generate coherent radiation in the THz region using a quick kicker magnet and an AC sextupole magnet. When the vertical chromaticity is modulated by the AC sextupole magnet, the vertical beam collective motion excited by the kicker produces a wavy spatial structure after a number of longitudinal oscillation periods. The radiation spectral distribution was calculated from the wavy bunch parameters at the Hefei Light Source(HLS). When the electron energy is reduced to 400 Me V, extremely strong coherent synchrotron radiation(CSR) at 0.115 THz should be produced.     

Statistical properties of the radiation from VUV-FEL at DESY (Femtosecond mode of operation)

Present bunch compression scheme at the VUV FEL at DESY is essentially nonlinear and naturally results in the formation of a short, high-current leading peak (spike) in the density distribution that produces FEL radiation. The main feature of the considered mode of operation is the production of short, down to 20 fs radiation pulses with GW-level peak power and contrast of 80%.     

Intense Cherenkov-type terahertz electromagnetic radiation from ultrafast laser-plasma interaction

A Cherenkov-type terahertz electromagnetic radiation is revealed, which results efficiently from the collective effects in the time-domain of ultrafast pulsed electron current produced by ultrafast intense laser--plasma interaction. The emitted pulse waveform and spectrum, and the dependence of laser pulse parameters on the structure of the radiation field are investigated numerically. The condition of THz radiation generation in this regime and Cherenkov geometry of the radiation field are studied analytically.     

Thermal radiation from carbon nanotubes in the terahertz range

The thermal radiation from an isolated finite-length carbon nanotube (CNT) is theoretically investigated both in near- and far-field zones. The formation of the discrete spectrum in metallic CNTs in the terahertz range is demonstrated due to the reflection of strongly slowed-down surface-plasmon modes from CNT ends. The effect does not appear in semiconductor CNTs. The concept of a CNT as a thermal nanoantenna is proposed.     

Commissioning of a multi‐beamline femtoslicing facility at SOLEIL

The investigation of ultrafast dynamics, taking place on the few to sub‐picosecond time scale, is today a very active research area pursued in a variety of scientific domains. With the recent advent of X‐ray free‐electron lasers (XFELs), providing very intense X‐ray pulses of duration as short as a few femtoseconds, this research field has gained further momentum. As a consequence, the demand for access strongly exceeds the capacity of the very few XFEL facilities existing worldwide. This situation motivates the development of alternative sub‐picosecond pulsed X‐ray sources among which femtoslicing facilities at synchrotron radiation storage rings are standing out due to their tunability over an extended photon energy range and their high stability. Following the success of the femtoslicing installations at ALS, BESSY‐II, SLS and UVSOR, SOLEIL decided to implement a femtoslicing facility. Several challenges were faced, including operation at the highest electron beam energy ever, and achievement of slice separation exclusively with the natural dispersion function of the storage ring. SOLEIL's setup also enables, for the first time, delivering sub‐picosecond pulses simultaneously to several beamlines. This last feature enlarges the experimental capabilities of the facility, which covers the soft and hard X‐ray photon energy range. In this paper, the commissioning of this original femtoslicing facility is reported. Furthermore, it is shown that the slicing‐induced THz signal can be used to derive a quantitative estimate for the degree of energy exchange between the femtosecond infrared laser pulse and the circulating electron bunch.     

Experimental study on terahertz radiation

In this letter, we describe a coherent subpicosecond terahertz (THz) spectroscopy system based on nonresonant optical rectification for the generation of THz radiation. We studied the two-photon absorption (TPA) of ZnTe induced by femtosecond laser pulses via THz generation, and its influence on the generation of THz radiation. Experimental results demonstrated that the intensity of pump beam against TPA must be traded off to get an optimum generation of THz radiation. As an example, we measured absorption spectrum of water vapor by time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) in the frequency range from 0.5 to 2.5 THzwith a high overall accuracy.     

Femtosecond dynamics of secondary radiation formation from quantum well excitons

The time-resolved secondary emission of resonantly created excitons in GaAs quantum wells is studied using femtosecond up-conversion spectroscopy. The behaviour of the rise and decay of the secondary emission and reflectivity in quantum wells is strongly dependent upon the disorder at the interfaces, the exciton density and the temperature. In the case of low densities and temperatures the emission is independent of the exciton density and rises quadratically in time, in excellent agreement with recent theory for Rayleigh scattering from two-dimensional excitons subjected to disorder. These rise times are compared directly with times measured by time-integrated four-wave mixing (FWM). The comparison of the dynamics displayed in time-resolved secondary radiation and time-integrated FWM provide a clear understanding of the coherence properties of QW excitons in the first few picoseconds after excitation. High-contrast oscillations that are due to quantum beats between the heavy- and light-hole 1s-states are seen. The visibility decay at very low densities is long ps and is related to the action of potential fluctuations on the scattering of heavy-hole and light-hole excitons.     

Tunable few-cycle and multicycle coherent terahertz radiation from relativistic electrons

We report the generation of tunable, narrow-band, few-cycle and multicycle coherent terahertz (THz) pulses from a temporally modulated relativistic electron beam. We demonstrate that the frequency of the THz radiation and the number of the oscillation cycles of the THz electric field can be tuned by changing the modulation period of the electron beam through a temporally shaped photocathode drive laser. The central frequency of the THz spectrum is tunable from ～0.26 to 2.6 THz with a bandwidth of ～0.16 THz.     

Studying acoustic-wave fields in langasite-family crystals using the BESSY II synchrotron radiation source

The process of the excitation and propagation of pseudosurface acoustic waves in crystals of the langasite family is studied via X-ray diffractometry for the first time. The investigations are carried out using the BESSY II synchrotron radiation source in the double-crystal X-ray diffractometer scheme. The process of pseudosurface acoustic wave propagation is studied based on an analysis of the diffraction spectra of acoustically modulated crystals. Both the velocities of the pseudosurface acoustic waves and the power flow angles of the acoustic energy are measured for the first time. The pseudosurface acoustic wave is shown to be flowing. Surface and pseudosurface acoustic waves generated by an interdigital transducer in the Z cut of a La₃Ga_5.5Ta_0.5O₁₄ crystal are compared.     

Features of the scattering of focused terahertz radiation from the probe of a terahertz near-field microscope

The scattering of pulsed terahertz radiation from metallic probes in the form of thin cylinders and cones with a small opening angle, which are used in apertureless terahertz near-field microscopes, has been investigated. The extrema of the waveform of pulsed terahertz radiation scattered from a free probe are linearly shifted with a change in the vertical position of the probe, and the spectral distribution is characterized by an inversely proportional frequency dependence. In the presence of a reflecting surface under the probe, when new excitation and detection directions appear, the spectrum of scattered terahertz radiation does not differ from the spectrum of the incident radiation. The experimental data are in mutual agreement with the theoretical results obtained within the model of the generation of diffraction edge waves at the interface of inhomogeneous excitation between the excitation region and shadow region.     

High quality resonances for terahertz radiation diffraction at periodically corrugated semiconductor interfaces

It is shown that the resonance features analogous to the well known optic Wood-type anomalies can be observed in the THz region for diffraction at periodically profiled semiconductor surfaces. The analytical theory of such resonance processes caused by excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is developed. It is shown that strong resonance effects such as total suppression of the specular reflection (TSSR) can be achieved for rather small inclinations of harmonic gratings. The analytical theory predictions are confirmed by strict numerical simulations. The analytical approach presented allows one to find parameters of the gratings so that the resonance diffraction results in specific redistributions of the reflected energy between different diffraction channels. As an example we demonstrate parameters of the InSb biharmonic grating responsible for the TSSR accompanied by 50% reflection in the minus first diffraction order when the SPP is excited in the plus first diffraction order.     

Rapid-phase modulation of terahertz radiation for high-speed terahertz imaging and spectroscopy

Rapid voltage-controlled phase modulation of cw terahertz (THz) radiation is demonstrated. By transmitting an infrared beam through a lithium niobate phase modulator the phase of the THz radiation, which is generated by the photomixing of two infrared beams, can be directly modulated through a 2pi phase shift. The 100 kHz modulation rate that is demonstrated with this technique is approximately 3 orders of magnitude faster than what can be achieved by mechanical scanning.