2016/10/20 by Li, Bin, Zhang, Wenyan, Liu, Xiaoqing +13
#FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1610.06493
Deriving single or few cycle terahertz pulse (THz) by intense femtosecond laser through cascaded optical rectification in electro-optic crystals is a crucial technique in cutting-edge time-resolved spectroscopy to characterize micro-scale structures and ultrafast dynamics. In the past decade, lithium niobate (LN) crystal implementation of wave-front tilt scheme has been prevalently used, while painstaking efforts have been invested in order to achieve higher THz conversion efficiency. In this research we developed a brand new type of LN crystal possessing dual-face-cut and Brewster coupling, and conducted experimental and simulative investigation systematically to optimize the multi-dimensionally entangled parameters in THz generation, predicting the extreme conversion efficiency of 10% is potentially promising at the THz absorption coefficient of 0.5cm-1. More remarkably, we first discovered that the chirp of the driving laser pulse plays a decisive role in the wave-front tilt scheme, and the THz generation efficiency could be enhanced tremendously by applying an appropriate chirp.