Transition from photocurrent surge to resonant optical rectification for terahertz generation in p-InAs

It has been demonstrated that the key to complete understanding of the mechanisms for terahertz (THz) generation from a p-type InAs wafer pumped by a subpicosecond Ti:sapphire amplifier lies in the dependences of the THz polarization on the azimuthal angle and polarization of the pump beam. At low enough pump intensities, photocurrent surge is the dominant mechanism for THz generation. However, the THz radiation originating from photocurrent surge is greatly reduced with increased pump intensity. Therefore, at sufficiently high pump intensities resonant optical rectification becomes the dominating mechanism for THz generation. The highest output power is measured to be 57 microW.     

Investigation of symmetries of second-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor of GaSe crystals in THz domain

Following our measurements and analysis made on several GaSe crystals, we demonstrated that terahertz (THz) generation from ultrafast laser pulses can be developed into a sensitive technique for investigating symmetries of second-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor of a nonlinear crystal. Indeed, for GaSe crystals, both Kleinman's symmetry condition and spatial symmetry were violated due to the contribution of ionic displacement to nonlinear polarization and deviation of GaSe lattice from hexagonal symmetry. When the pump photon energy was increased from that below the bandgap of GaSe to that above it, the mechanism for the THz generation was switched from optical rectification to photocurrent surge.     

GaSe晶体的双光子吸收对太赫兹输出的影响

根据光整流效应,利用超快激光脉冲泵浦GaSe晶体实现了0.2~2.5 THz的宽带太赫兹辐射输出。禁带中的电子在两个800 nm光子的作用下激发到导带中形成自由载流子,进而吸收所产生的太赫兹辐射,最终导致太赫兹的输出随泵浦功率的增加而趋于饱和。为了研究双光子吸收对太赫兹输出的影响,测量了800 nm处的GaSe晶体的双光子吸收系数,结果为 0.165 cm/GW。通过对太赫兹输出实验数据的拟合,得到GaSe晶体中自由载流子对太赫兹输出的吸收截面为1×10^-15 cm²。本文的研究结果可用于优化GaSe晶体在强激光泵浦下的太赫兹转换效率。     

Resonant terahertz generation from InN thin films

Highly efficient conversion from ultrafast optical pulses to their terahertz (THz) counterparts has been achieved with InN thin films. An average THz output power as high as 0.931 microW has been obtained for an average pump power of 1 W, corresponding to a normalized conversion efficiency of 190% mm(-2). Based on our measured dependences of the THz output power on pump polarization, incident angle, pump power, and InN film thickness, resonance-enhanced optical rectification is one of the most plausible mechanisms for the THz generation in the InN films.     

Terahertz-wave generation with periodically inverted gallium arsenide

We overview methods of THz-wave generation using frequency down-conversion in GaAs with periodically-inverted crystalline orientation. First, we compare different nonlinear-optical materials suitable for THz generation, analyze THz generation process in quasi-phase-matched crystals and consider theoretical limits of optical-to-THz conversion. Then, we review single-pass optical rectification experiments with femtosecond pump pulses, performed in periodically-inverted GaAs, where monochromatic THz output tunable in the range 0.9–3.0 THz was produced. Finally, we describe a novel approach to create a compact highly efficient tunable (0.5–3.5 THz) room temperature monochromatic THz source, based on the concept of intracavity THz generation via resonantly-enhanced difference frequency mixing. This approach allowed generating of 1 mW of average THz power, potentially scalable to 10–100 mW.     

光子学太赫兹源研究进展

为了进一步开发、利用高功率、高效率、可调谐且在室温下稳定运转的太赫兹(THz)源,介绍、分析了国内外利用光子技术产生THz波的研究进展,包括THz气体激光器、空气等离子体THz源、光电导天线以及基于非线性光学效应的光学整流、光学差频、参量振荡等THz源,并指出了光子学THz源未来发展所面临的困难和需要解决的关键技术。     

Compact and high-power broadband terahertz source based on femtosecond photonic crystal fiber amplifier

We present a review of the development of a compact and high-power broadband terahertz (THz) source optically excited by a femtosecond photonic crystal fiber (PCF) amplifier.The large mode area of the PCF and the stretcher-free configuration make the pump source compact and very efficient.Broadband THz pulses of 150 μW extending from 0.1 to 3.5 THz are generated from a 3-mm-thick GaP crystal through optical rectification of 12-W pump pulses with duration of 66 fs and a repetition rate of 52 MHz.A strong saturation effect is observed,which is attributed to pump pulse absorption;a Z-scan measurement shows that three-photon absorption dominates the nonlinear absorption when the crystal is pumped by femtosecond pulses at 1 040 nm.A further scale-up of the THz source power is expected to find important applications in THz nonlinear optics and nonlinear THz spectroscopy.     

Broadband terahertz pulse emission from ZnGeP2

Optical rectification is demonstrated in (110)-cut ZnGeP(2) (ZGP) providing broadband terahertz (THz) generation. The source is compared to both GaP and GaAs over a wavelength range of 1150 nm to 1600 nm and peak-intensity range of 0.5 GW/cm(2) to 40 GW/cm(2). ZGP peak-to-peak field amplitude is larger than in the other materials due to either lower nonlinear absorption or larger second-order nonlinearity. This material is well suited for broadband THz generation across a wide range of infrared excitation wavelengths.     

Optimization of highly efficient terahertz generation in lithium niobate driven by Ti:sapphire laser pulses with 30 fs pulse duration

We systematically study the optimization of highly efficient terahertz(THz) generation in lithium niobate(LN)crystal pumped by 800 nm laser pulses with 30 fs pulse duration. At room temperature, we obtain a record optical-to-THz energy conversion efficiency of 0.43% by chirping the pump laser pulses. Our method provides a new technique for producing millijoule THz radiation in LN via optical rectification driven by joule-level Ti:sapphire laser systems, which deliver sub-50-fs pulse durations.     

Polarization analysis of terahertz radiation generated by four-wave mixing in air

We examine the generation of terahertz (THz) by optical rectification of a fundamental infrared beam with its first harmonic in ionized air. From polarization measurements we identify an important, yet so far unreported (to our knowledge), cross term (chi(3)(xyxy)) + chi(3)(xyyx)) of the nonlinear susceptibility tensor. Omission of this term leads to an error by a factor of 10(6) of the THz intensity obtained with certain polarization configurations.     

Enhancement of the second harmonic generation from monolayer WS2 coupled with a silica microsphere

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are widely used for integrated optical and photoelectric devices. Owing to their broken inversion symmetry, monolayer TMDs have a large second-order optical nonlinearity. However, the optical second-order nonlinear conversion efficiency of monolayer TMDs is still limited by the interaction length. In this work, we theoretically study the second harmonic generation (SHG) from monolayer tungsten sulfide (WS₂) enhanced by a silica microsphere cavity. By tuning the position, size, and crystal orientation of the material, second-order nonlinear coupling can occur between the fundamental pump mode and different second harmonic cavity modes, and we obtain an optimal SHG conversion efficiency with orders of magnitude enhancement. Our work demonstrates that the microsphere cavity can significantly enhance SHG from monolayer 2D materials under flexible conditions.     

Generation of sub-mJ terahertz pulses by optical rectification

Recent theoretical calculations predicted an order-of-magnitude increase in the efficiency of terahertz pulse generation by optical rectification in lithium niobate when 500 fs long pump pulses are used, rather than the commonly used ~100 fs pulses. Even by using longer than optimal pump pulses of 1.3 ps duration, 2.5× higher THz pulse energy (125 μJ) was measured with 2.5× higher pump-to-THz energy conversion efficiency (0.25%) than reported previously with shorter pulses. These results verify the advantage of longer pump pulses and support the expectation that mJ-level THz pulses will be available by cooling the crystal and using large pumped area.     

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.     

THz Generation by Optical Rectification and Competition with Other Nonlinear Processes

We present a study of the competition between tera-hertz （THz） generation by optical rectification in （110） ZnTe crystals, two-photon absorption, second harmonic generation and free-carrier absorption. The two-photon nonlinear absorption coefficient, second harmonic generation efficiency and free-carrier absorption coefficient in the THz range are measured independently. The incident pump field is shown to be depleted by two-photon absorption and the THz radiation is shown to be reduced, upon focusing, by free-carrier absorption. The reduction of the generated THz radiation upon tight focusing is explained, provided that one also takes into account diffraction effects from the sub-wavelength THz source.     

Terahertz wave generation and detection from a cdte crystal characterized by different excitation wavelengths

Terahertz (THz) wave generation and detection from a (110)-oriented CdTe crystal via optical rectification and electro-optic sampling has been performed with laser wavelengths ranging from 710 to 970 nm. Three optical rectification regimes are studied with various excitation wavelengths: a resonance-enhanced regime above the bandgap, a highly phase-mismatched regime near the band gap, and a semi-phase-matched regime. A CdTe crystal generates more THz power than a ZnTe crystal at 970 nm.     

Picosecond pump-probe measurement of bandgap changes in SiO2/TiO2 one-dimensional photonic bandgap structures

A picosecond pump-probe nonlinear optical measurement is performed in SiO2/TiO2 one-dimensional photonic bandgap structures fabricated by a solgel method. Both high and low band edges were examined by varying the probe wavelengths and angle tuning was also employed to further clarify the mechanism of a nonlinear optical response. The third-order nonlinear optical response in one-dimensional photonic bandgap structures that comprise TiO2 films is responsible for the nonlinear optical transmissions at both bandgap edges, with an 8% decrease at the low-energy edge and a 4.5% increase at the high-energy edge for a 355 nm pump intensity of 430 MW/cm2.     

非线性有机材料DAST的研究及应用

随着光通信、光信息处理技术等的快速发展,非线性光学材料越来越受到学术界与工业的关注。与无机非线性光学材料相比,有机非线性光学材料具有响应时间短、易于加工和高非线性系数等优点。其中,4-(4-二甲氨基苯乙烯基)甲基吡啶对甲苯磺酸盐(DAST)是人工设计的一种具有非中心对称性和较强极化率的有机非线性材料。大量理论和实验结果表明,DAST具有高二阶光学非线性系数、高电光系数、大双折射率差和低介电常数等特性,能够产生更快、更强的光学非线性响应,还具有优异的太赫兹波发射及吸收性能,是目前综合性能最优、应用最广、最具研究价值的非线性有机材料。近年光谱研究显示,DAST还表现出各向异性的太赫兹光谱特性。文章系统地总结了DAST晶体在太赫兹波发射、二次谐波产生、电光探测和电光调制等众多领域的国内外研究成果,还概括了我们团队近期在DAST基薄膜、太赫兹光谱、光电特性、超材料等新领域的研究进展。此外,还提出将准相位匹配法用于DAST晶体研究、利用电场或自组装膜诱导生长DAST晶体等新思路。对DAST成果的总结和梳理,将促进非线性DAST有机材料在电光调制器、频率转换器、THz探测器等重要领域的应用与理论研究,使其能够更加广泛地应用在光通信、光信息处理、军事技术等重要领域。     

Optical terahertz wave generation in a planar GaAs waveguide

We report generation of terahertz (THz) radiation in a planar 61-microm-thick GaAs waveguide with a TM0 propagation mode, achieved by phase-matched difference frequency mixing. The THz output was centered near 2 THz and had 1 microW average power. As a pump source we utilized both the signal and the idler outputs of a near-degenerate type II synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator operating near 2 microm with the average powers of 250 and 750 mW, correspondingly.     

Generation of electromagnetic waves in the terahertz frequency range by optical rectification of a Gaussian laser pulse in a plasma in presence of an externally applied static electric field

We propose a theoretical model for the generation of electromagnetic waves in the terahertz (THz) frequency range by the optical rectification of a Gaussian laser pulse in a plasma with an applied static electric field transverse to the direction of propagation. A Gaussian laser pulse can exert a transverse component of the quasi‐static ponderomotive force on the electrons at a frequency in the THz range by a suitable choice of the laser pulse width. This nonlinear force is responsible for the density oscillation. The coupling of this oscillation with the drift velocity acquired by electrons due to the applied static electric field leads to the generation of a nonlinear current density. A spatial Gaussian intensity profile of the laser beam enhances the generated THz yield by many folds as compared to a uniform spatial intensity profile.     

The effect of two-photon absorption and optical excitation area on the generation of THz radiation

It was found experimentally that the THz radiation throughput based on optical rectification is strongly related to the optical excitation size in a ZeTe emitter. The factors affecting the THz radiation throughput are investigated in detail both experimentally and theoretically. By taking into account optical rectification, diffraction and two-photon absorption effects, a theoretical model is established to describe the emitting field intensity of THz radiation. There is excellent agreement between the theoretical results and the experimental data under high excitation power. Both theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that there is a trade-off between these three effects for THz radiation, and that in order to increase the THz radiation throughput based on optical rectification, one should choose suitable excitation size under a given pump power.