Abstract-1.4‐mJ High Energy Terahertz Radiation from Lithium Niobates

 

Baolong Zhang,  Zhenzhe Ma, Jinglong Ma,  Xiaojun Wu,  Chen Ouyang,  Deyin Kong,  Tianshu Hong,  Xuan Wang,  Peidi Yang, Liming Chen, Yutong Li, Jie Zhang, 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/lpor.202000295

Free‐space super‐strong terahertz (THz) electromagnetic fields offer multifaceted capabilities for reaching extreme nonlinear THz optics. However, the lack of powerful solid‐state THz sources with single pulse energy >1 mJ is impeding the proliferation of extreme THz applications. The fundamental challenge lies in hard to achieve high efficiency due to high intensity pumping caused crystal damage, linear absorption, and nonlinear distortion induced short effective interaction length, and so on. Here, through cryogenically cooling the crystals, tailoring the pump laser spectra, chirping the pump pulses, and magnifying the laser energies, 1.4‐mJ THz pulses are successfully realized in lithium niobates under the excitation of 214‐mJ femtosecond laser pulses via tilted pulse front technique. The 800 nm‐to‐THz energy conversion efficiency reaches 0.7%, and a free‐space THz peak electric and magnetic field reaches 6.3 MV cm−1 and 2.1 Tesla. Numerical simulations reproduce the experimental optimization processes. To show the capability of this super‐strong THz source, nonlinear absorption in high conductive silicon induced by strong THz electric field is demonstrated. Such a high‐energy THz source with a relatively low peak frequency is very appropriate not only for electron acceleration toward table‐top X‐ray sources but also for extreme THz science and nonlinear applications.

Abstract-Enhancement of Spintronic Terahertz Emission via Annealing in Ferromagnetic Heterostructures

Xiaojun Wu, Yang Gao, Yanbin He, Tianxiao Nie, Chun Wang, Deyin Kong, Chandan Pandey, Bo Wang, Lianggong Wen, Weisheng Zhao, Cunjun Ruan, Jungang Miao, Li Wang, Yutong Li, Kang L. Wang

https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.07113

We systematically investigate the influence of annealing effect on terahertz (THz) generation from CoFeB based magnetic nanofilms driven by femtosecond laser pulses. Three times enhancement of THz yields are achieved in W/CoFeB through annealing effect, and double boosting is obtained in Pt/CoFeB. The mechanism of annealing effect originates from the increase of hot electron mean free path induced by crystallization, which is experimentally corroborated by THz transmission measurement on time-domain spectroscopy. Comparison studies of the thickness dependent THz efficiency after annealing are also implemented, and we eventually conclude that annealing and thickness optimization are of importance for scaling up THz intensity. Our observations not only deepen understanding of the spintronic THz radiation mechanism but also provide normal platform for high speed spintronic opto-electronic devices.

Abstract-Broadband Magnetic-Manipulated Spintronic Terahertz Emitter with Arbitrarily Tunable Polarizations

Xiaojun Wu, Deyin Kong, Tianxiao Nie, Bo Wang, Meng Xiao, Chandan Pandey, Yang Gao, Lianggong Wen, Weisheng Zhao, Cunjun Ruan, Jungang Miao, Li Wang, Yutong Li

https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10474

Flexible manipulation of terahertz-wave polarization during the generation process is very important for terahertz applications, especially for the next-generation on-chip functional terahertz sources. However, current terahertz emitters could not satisfy such demand, hence calling for new mechanism and conceptually new terahertz source. Here we demonstrate a magnetic-field-controlled, highly-efficient, cost-effective, and broadband terahertz source with flexible switch of terahertz polarization states in ferromagnetic heterostructures driven by femtosecond laser pulses. We verify that the chirality, azimuthal angle, and ellipticity of the generated elliptical terahertz waves can be independently manipulated by delicately engineering of the external applied magnetic fields via effectively manipulating the photo-induced spin currents. Such an ultrafast photomagnetic interaction-based, magnetic-field-controlled, and broadband tunable solid-state terahertz source integrated with terahertz polarization tunability function not only has the capability to reveal physical mechanisms of femtosecond spin dynamics, but also demonstrates the feasibility to realize novel on-chip terahertz functional devices, boosting the potential applications for controlling elementary molecular rotations, phonon vibrations, spin precessions, high-speed terahertz communication, and accelerating the development of ultrafast terahertz opto-spintronics.