Abstract-Development of a Stokes polarimeter system for high terahertz frequency region

Takashi Notake1, Banghong Zhang2, Yandong Gong2 and Hiroaki Minamide1

notake@riken.jp

http://iopscience.iop.org/1347-4065/53/9/092601/pdf/1347-4065_53_9_092601.pdf

1 Tera-Photonics Laboratory, RIKEN RAP, Sendai 980-0845, Japan
2 Institute for Infocomm Research, 138632 Singapore
 

Takashi Notake et al 2014 Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53 092601. doi:10.7567/JJAP.53.092601
Received 19 March 2014, accepted for publication 17 July 2014. Published 1 September 2014.
© 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics

We have developed a Stokes polarimeter system which can be used at an arbitrary, wide terahertz frequency region by using a wave plate and difference frequency generation system with DAST crystal (DAST-DFG). Conventional wave plates made of dielectric materials with intrinsic birefringence at optical wavelengths cannot be applied directly to terahertz frequencies because of the large absorption loss. High resistivity silicon, which remains transparent even at the higher terahertz frequency region, was selected as the wave plate material. Although the silicon has intrinsic birefringence hardly, large form birefringence can be successfully induced by fabricating a one-dimensional grating structure of sub-wavelength scale on its surface and proper operation as wave plate can be confirmed. By using the wave plate with a polarizer on DAST-DFG system, Stokes polarimeter system can be also successfully developed. Our approach can be extended to an arbitrary, wide terahertz frequency region and open many terahertz-wave applications associated with polarization physics at there.