Abstract-Phase-Insensitive Scattering of Terahertz Radiation

Mihail Petev ^1,2

,NiclasWesterberg ¹,Eleonora Rubino ¹

,Daniel Moss ^1,3

,Arnaud Couairon ⁴

,François Légaré ⁵

,Roberto Morandotti ^5,6,7

,Daniele Faccio ^1,*  andMatteo Clerici ^8,* 

¹

School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, SUPA, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK

²

Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL), D-91058 Erlangen, Germany

³

Department of Physics and Solid State Institute, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel

⁴

Centre de Physique Théorique CNRS, École Polytechnique, F-91128 Palaiseau, France

⁵

INRS-EMT, 1650 Blvd. Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, QC J3X 1S2, Canada

⁶

Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China

⁷

National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, St. Petersburg 197101, Russia

⁸

School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8LT, UK

http://www.mdpi.com/2304-6732/4/1/7

The nonlinear interaction between Near-Infrared (NIR) and Terahertz pulses is principally investigated as a means for the detection of radiation in the hardly accessible THz spectral region. Most studies have targeted second-order nonlinear processes, given their higher efficiencies, and only a limited number have addressed third-order nonlinear interactions, mainly investigating four-wave mixing in air for broadband THz detection. We have studied the nonlinear interaction between THz and NIR pulses in solid-state media (specifically diamond), and we show how the former can be frequency-shifted up to UV frequencies by the scattering from the nonlinear polarisation induced by the latter. Such UV emission differs from the well-known electric field-induced second harmonic (EFISH) one, as it is generated via a phase-insensitive scattering, rather than a sum- or difference-frequency four-wave-mixing process

Abstract-Wavelength Scaling of Terahertz Generation by Gas Ionization

Matteo Clerici^1,2,*, Marco Peccianti^3,1, Bruno E. Schmidt¹, Lucia Caspani¹, Mostafa Shalaby¹, Mathieu Giguère¹,Antonio Lotti^4,5, Arnaud Couairon⁵, François Légaré¹, Tsuneyuki Ozaki¹, Daniele Faccio^2,†, and Roberto Morandotti^1 
1INRS-EMT, 1650 Boulevard Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, Québec J3X 1S2, Canada
²School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, SUPA, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom
³Institute for Complex Systems (ISC), CNR, via dei Taurini 19, 00185 Rome, Italy
⁴Dipartimento di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy
⁵Centre de Physique Théorique CNRS, École Polytechnique, F-91128 Palaiseau, France
http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v110/i25/e253901

Low-frequency currents induced by ultrashort laser-driven ionization can emit extremely broadband, single-cycle terahertz pulses. We present a model that predicts a strong wavelength dependence of the THz emission in good agreement with our experimental study. This reveals that the combined effects of plasma currents rising proportionally to the square of the pump wavelength and wavelength-dependent focusing conditions lead to 30 times higher THz emission at 1800 nm compared to an 800 nm wavelength. Unrivaled single-cycle electric field strengths of 4.4  MV/cm are achieved with this compact table-top setup.

© 2013 American Physical Society

Abstract-Nonlinear imaging and 3D-mapping of terahertz fields with Kerr media

http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.5886

Matteo Clerici, Daniele Faccio, Lucia Caspani, Marco Peccianti, Eleonora Rubino, Luca Razzari, François Légaré, Tsuneyuki Ozaki, Roberto Morandotti

(Submitted on 23 Mar 2013)

 We investigate the spatially and temporally resolved four-wave mixing of terahertz fields and optical pulses in large band-gap dielectrics, such as diamond. We show that it is possible to perform beam profiling and space-time resolved mapping of terahertz fields with sub-wavelength THz resolution by encoding the spatial information into an optical signal, which can then be recorded by a standard CCD camera.