Coherent synthesis of terahertz radiation from femtosecond laser filaments in air

We report on the coherent synthesis of pulsed terahertz radiation from femtosecond laser filaments organized in an array. The terahertz intensity is proportional to the square of the number of the filaments, which provides a simple method for scaling up of the terahertz energy with a powerful femtosecond laser. Moreover, directional off-axis terahertz radiation can be achieved. This paves the way for applications of this terahertz source for remote sensing.

[1]  Riju C. Issac,et al.  Plasma characterization with terahertz time–domain measurements , 2003 .

[2]  A. Mysyrowicz,et al.  Maker fringes in the Terahertz radiation produced by a 2-color laser field in air. , 2009, Optics express.

[3]  K. Tanaka,et al.  Single-cycle terahertz pulses with amplitudes exceeding 1 MV/cm generated by optical rectification in LiNbO3 and applications to nonlinear optics , 2011, Other Conferences.

[4]  F. Théberge,et al.  Toward remote high energy terahertz generation , 2010 .

[5]  J. Federici,et al.  Review of terahertz and subterahertz wireless communications , 2010 .

[6]  Ray Bert,et al.  Book Review: Smith, Currie & Hancock's Common Sense Construction Law, Third Edition , edited by Thomas J. Kelleher, Jr. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005 , 2005 .

[7]  Alfred Leitenstorfer,et al.  Coherent terahertz control of antiferromagnetic spin waves , 2011 .

[8]  J. M. Chamberlain,et al.  An introduction to medical imaging with coherent terahertz frequency radiation. , 2002, Physics in medicine and biology.

[9]  George Rodriguez,et al.  Terahertz emission from ultrafast ionizing air in symmetry-broken laser fields. , 2007, Optics express.

[10]  Xu Xie,et al.  Coherent control of THz wave generation in ambient air. , 2006, Physical review letters.

[11]  Jean-Claude Kieffer,et al.  Microwave guiding in air by a cylindrical filament array waveguide , 2008 .

[12]  P. Encrenaz,et al.  Coherent subterahertz radiation from femtosecond infrared filaments in air. , 2002, Optics letters.

[13]  H Schroeder,et al.  From random to controlled small-scale filamentation in water. , 2004, Optics express.

[14]  V. Tikhonchuk,et al.  Conical forward THz emission from femtosecond-laser-beam filamentation in air. , 2007, Physical review letters.

[15]  Constantine A. Balanis,et al.  Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design , 1982 .

[16]  Xicheng Zhang,et al.  Terahertz Wave Air Photonics: Terahertz Wave Generation and Detection With Laser-Induced Gas Plasma , 2011, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[17]  Vladimir T. Tikhonchuk,et al.  Forward THz radiation emission by femtosecond filamentation in gases: theory and experiment , 2008 .

[18]  B. Leriche,et al.  Calorimetric detection of the conical terahertz radiation from femtosecond laser filaments in air , 2007 .

[19]  Hartmut G. Roskos,et al.  Comparative performance of terahertz emitters in amplifier-laser-based systems , 2005 .

[20]  K. Y. Kim,et al.  Off-axis phase-matched terahertz emission from two-color laser-induced plasma filaments. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[21]  H. Zeng,et al.  Verification of the physical mechanism of THz generation by dual-color ultrashort laser pulses , 2012 .

[22]  F. Théberge,et al.  Remote THz generation from two-color filamentation: long distance dependence. , 2012, Optics express.

[23]  S. Tzortzakis,et al.  Strong terahertz emission enhancement via femtosecond laser filament concatenation in air. , 2010, Optics letters.

[24]  Hyang Sook Chun,et al.  Detection of foreign bodies in foods using continuous wave terahertz imaging. , 2012, Journal of food protection.

[25]  A. Couairon,et al.  Organizing multiple femtosecond filaments in air. , 2004, Physical review letters.

[26]  Hua Zhong,et al.  Terahertz Spectroscopy and Imaging for Defense and Security Applications , 2007, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[27]  A. Couairon,et al.  Femtosecond filamentation in transparent media , 2007 .

[28]  X-C Zhang,et al.  Identification and classification of chemicals using terahertz reflective spectroscopic focal-plane imaging system. , 2006, Optics express.

[29]  Ryo Shimano,et al.  Nonequilibrium BCS state dynamics induced by intense terahertz pulses in a superconducting NbN film. , 2012, Physical review letters.