用飞秒激光触发GaAs光电导体产生THz电磁波的研究

报道了用半绝缘GaAs材料研制的光电导偶极天线在飞秒激光脉冲触发下辐射THz电磁波的实验结果.GaAs光电导偶极芯片的两个欧姆接触电极间隙为3mm,采用Si3N4薄膜绝缘保护,在540V直流偏置下被波长800nm,脉宽14fs,重复频率75MHz,平均功率130mW的飞秒激光脉冲触发时产生THz电磁波.用电光取样测量得到了THz电磁脉冲的时域波形和频谱分布.THz电磁波的辐射峰值位于0.5THz左右,频谱宽度大于2THz,脉冲宽度约为1ps.     

Intense Terahertz Pulse-Induced Nonlinear Responses in Carbon Nanotubes

By using intense terahertz(THz) monocycle pulses, nonlinear light-matter interaction in aligned semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes(SWNTs) embedded in a polymer film was investigated. THz electric-field-induced ultrafast Stark effect of one-dimensional excitons in SWNTs was observed at room temperature, suggesting the potential functionality of SWNTs for high speed electro-optic devices operating at telecom wavelength with a THz bandwidth. When the peak electric field amplitude exceeds 200 kV/cm, the generation of excitons by the THz pump becomes prominent. The mechanism is described by the above-gap excitation of electrons and holes in SWNTs due to the impact excitation process induced by the intense THz electric field.     

High Energy THz Pulse Generation by Tilted Pulse Front Excitation and Its Nonlinear Optical Applications

Generation of high energy THz pulses by tilted pulse front excitation is reviewed. The basic idea and the realized setups are described. Properties of THz pulses generated by using different pump lasers are summarized. Nonlinear optical effects induced by the high energy THz pulses were observed, such as nonlinear refraction, self-phase modulation, saturation of THz absorption, and free carrier generation. The main results on these phenomena are described. The possibility of using THz pulses as a quasi-dc field for increasing the cut-off frequency in high harmonic generation is analyzed. The THz generation setup used in recent experiments is analyzed and arrangements for achieving better THz beam quality and higher THz pulse energy are considered. Finally, some results of calculations indicating significantly increased generation efficiency of 0.2-THz pulses compared to generation efficiency of 1-THz pulses are presented.     

Enhanced Terahertz Imaging of Small Forced Delamination in Woven Glass Fibre-reinforced Composites with Wavelet De-noising

Terahertz (THz) reflection imaging is applied to characterize a woven glass fibre-reinforced composite laminate with a small region of forced delamination. The forced delamination is created by inserting a disk of 25- μ m-thick Upilex film, which is below the THz axial resolution, resulting in one featured echo with small amplitude in the reflected THz pulses. Low-amplitude components of the temporal signal due to ambient water vapor produce features of comparable amplitude with features associated with the THz pulse reflected off the interfaces of the delamination and suppress the contrast of THz C- and B-scans. Wavelet shrinkage de-noising is performed to remove water-vapor features, leading to enhanced THz C- and B-scans to locate the delamination in three dimensions with high contrast.     

Temporal Behavior of the Pump Pulses,Residual Pump Pulses,and THz Pulses for D<Subscript>2</Subscript>O Gas Pumped by a TEA CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Laser

Temporal behavior of the pump pulses, residual pump pulses, and THz pulses for optically pumped D₂O gas molecules was investigated by using a tunable TEA CO₂ laser as the pumping source. The pulse profiles of pump laser pulses, residual pump pulses, and the THz output pulses were measured, simultaneously, at several different gas pressures. For THz pulse, the pulse delay between the THz pulse and the pump pulse was observed and the delay time was observed to increase from 40 to 70 ns with an increase in gas pressure from 500 to 1700 Pa. Both THz pulse broadening and compression were observed, and the pulse broadening effect transformed to the compression effect with increasing the gas pressure. For the residual pump pulse, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the main pulse decreased with increasing gas pressure, and the main pulse disappeared at high gas pressures. The secondary pulses were observed at high gas pressure, and the time intervals of about 518 and 435 ns were observed between the THz output pulse and the secondary residual pump pulse at the pressure of 1400 Pa and 1700 Pa, from which the vibrational relaxation time constants of about 5.45 and 5.55 μs Torr were obtained.     

重复激光脉冲作用下薄膜损伤演化规律研究

为了深入研究重复激光脉冲的能量效应对光学薄膜的烧蚀机理,采用实验观测与热力学分析相结合的方法进行了研究。通过观察光学薄膜烧蚀形貌随入射激光脉冲数量增加发生改变的典型形貌特征,分析了激光与等离子体相互作用的热力学过程,得到了在激光重复脉冲作用下光学薄膜的损伤特性及其演化规律。结果表明,薄膜在重复脉冲作用下,其表面会变得粗糙,这会大大增加对激光的吸收效应,从而加速了薄膜的破坏,最终被完全去除而露出基底;同时,烧蚀物会在热膨胀作用下向激光作用区域外扩散,在激光烧蚀中心区域外进行沉积,而形成更大范围的污染。由于激光光强为高斯分布,重复脉冲作用的效应主要是对在光束中心区域的薄膜进行集中烧蚀,会不断增加烧蚀的损伤程度,而对烧蚀面积的增加效应极为有限。这一研究结果为重复激光脉冲对薄膜烧蚀机理的建立提供了参考。     

Imaging and Spectroscopic Sensing with Low-Repetition-Rate Terahertz Pulses and GaN TeraFET Detectors

Aiming for non-destructive testing and security applications, we investigate transmission-mode imaging and spectroscopic sensing using terahertz (THz) pulses from a commercial optical parametric oscillator (OPO) in combination with THz detectors based on antenna-coupled field-effect transistors (TeraFETs). The Q-switched OPO generates quasi-continuous-wave THz pulses with a peak power of up to 1 W at a repetition rate between 12 and 90 Hz. The pulses are frequency-tunable between 0.7 and 2.6 THz with a typical linewidth of 50 GHz. We explore detection with fast GaN/AlGaN TeraFETs which hold the potential for multi-pixel and homodyne detection.     

Prediction of the Thickness of a Thin Paint Film by Applying a Modified Partial-Least-Squares-1 Method to Data Obtained in Terahertz Reflectometry

We applied a multivariate analysis method to time-domain (TD) data obtained in terahertz (THz) reflectometry for predicting the thickness of a single-layered paint film deposited on a metal substrate. For prediction purposes, we built a calibration model from TD-THz waveforms obtained from films of different thicknesses but the same kind. Because each TD-THz wave is approximate by the superposition of two echo pulses (one is reflected from the air–film boundary and the other from the film–substrate boundary), a difference in thickness gives a relative peak shift in time in the two echo pulses. Then, we predicted unknown thicknesses of the paint films by using the calibration model. Although any multivariate analysis method can be used, we proposed employing a modified partial-least-squares-1 (PLS1) method because it gives a superior calibration model in principle. The prediction procedure worked well for a moderately thin film (typically, several to several tens of micrometers) rather than a thicker one.     

Characterization of an optoelectronic terahertz beam system

The performance of an optoelectronic terahertz (THz) beam system is described. The transmitter operation is based on the repetitive, subpicosecond laser excitation of a Hertzian dipole antenna embedded in a charged coplanar line. With this transmitter electromagnetic beams of 1/2 cycle THz pulses at a repetition rate of 100 MHz are produced. The associated optoelectronic receiver is gated in synchronism with the excitation of the transmitter by subpicosecond pulses from the same laser source. With this receiver, the 10-nW beams of THz pulses were observed with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 10000:1. Several sources contributing to the noise of the receiver are discussed, together with ways to reduce them. With an integration time of 125 ms, a signal-to-noise ratio of 1 is obtained for a THz beam with an average power of 10^-16 W. The receiver operates in the sampling mode and has a time resolution of 0.5 ps     

基于超快激光技术的THz波产生和探测

主要介绍利用超快激光技术产生和探测THz波辐射。THz波探测方法包括电光取样和空气探测。电光取样利用光学电光效应,采用探测激光偏振态的改变得到THz电场时域波形,广泛应用在TDS系统中。空气探测方法利用激光在空气中的三阶非线性效应,可以测得THz时域波形,并且该方法没有晶体的限制,因此可以探测频谱较宽的THz脉冲。产生THz的方法主要包括光电导天线、光学Dember效应、光整流和激光等离子体。其中前三者受到材料本征声子的影响,产生的THz谱宽有一定限制。倾斜激光脉冲波前入射非线性晶体光整流可以产生很强的THz波。双色飞秒激光脉冲与空气等离子体作用,可以产生较强的宽谱THz辐射,并且其谱宽与激光脉冲宽度密切相关。     

Optimized Optical Rectification and Electro-optic Sampling in ZnTe Crystals with Chirped Femtosecond Laser Pulses

We report on optimization of the intensity of THz signals generated and detected by optical rectification and electro-optic sampling in dispersive, nonlinear media. Addition of a negative prechirp to the femtosecond laser pulses used in the THz generation and detection processes in 1-mm thick ZnTe crystals leads to an increase of the THz intensity of more than 30% at low laser intensity and up to 60% at higher laser intensity. Dispersion compensation in the ZnTe crystal, which becomes significant for laser pulses with durations much less than 100 fs, is responsible for the enhanced generation and detection efficiency at low excitation intensity, and our simulations indicate that two-photon absorption is responsible for the increased efficiency enhancement observed at high excitation intensity.     

少数周期光脉冲的初始载波包络相位的测量

提出了利用空气成丝产生的太赫兹波测量少数周期激光的初始载波包络相位（CEP）的方法。空气等离子体产生的太赫兹波形的演变可以用来探测传播中的少数周期激光的载波包络相位的变化。在少数周期强激光场，太赫兹波形反转的数目和反转位置都有规律地依赖于少数周期激光的载波包络相位。利用光电流模型的计算结果表明，在适中的能量范围内，对于所有的初始CEP，太赫兹波形反转点数目是两个或者一个，且在不同输入能量下，总是在初始CEP 为0.5 时，太赫兹波形的两个反转点变为一个反转点。这可以提供准确测量驱动激光场初始CEP 的方法。     

Use of THz Reflectometry for Roughness Estimations of Archeological Metal Surfaces

In this work, using a time domain spectrometer, we have investigated the reflection of terahertz (THz) pulses from surfaces that exhibit a variable degree of roughness. The study was mainly aimed at assessing the influence of the surface texture on the amplitude and the shape of the pulses reflected by stratified materials and at exploring the potential of this technique for achieving quantitative information on the roughness of the material interfaces hit by the THz beam. The behavior of the reflected THz pulses was investigated by considering angular measurements on a set of suitable mock-ups. Measurements were carried out on an authentic archeological Roman coin that exhibited different corrosion situations. An electromagnetic model was used for estimating the roughness of outer and inner surfaces. The comparison of the results with those provided by other techniques made it possible to parameterize the surface texture such as the traditional contact micro-profilometry and the more recently used 3D digital microscopy.     

Analysis and design of a photoconductive integrated photomixer/antenna for terahertz applications

A new terahertz (THz) photoconductive photomixer/antenna device is presented. A continuous-wave THz signal is generated in a dc-biased photoconductive film by employing optical heterodyne scheme, and at the same time, the size of the film on the grounded dielectric substrate is designed to have an efficient broadside radiation. Incorporating the photoconductive film as the photomixing media and the radiation element not only eliminates source to antenna coupling problem but also makes the proposed device attractive for THz array source configurations. Analytical expressions for the photocurrent and the radiation power are derived under high dc bias condition, and the effects of the device configuration on its performance is studied. Two possible photomixer configurations, namely longitudinal and transversal, are introduced and their photomixing efficiencies and radiation power are compared. The typical nW output power is achievable by mW laser pump power for frequencies up to 10 THz.     

缓慢上升快速下降的飞秒激光脉冲与气体等离子体作用的太赫兹辐射产生研究

飞秒激光脉冲与气体等离子体作用可以产生宽带、强的太赫兹脉冲辐射。采用一种缓慢上升、快速下降的飞秒激光脉冲与气体等离子体作用产生太赫兹辐射,并基于等离子体电流模型计算了这种太赫兹辐射的特性。由于这种特殊整形的激光脉冲能够对电子的加速产生较大的速度,从而可以产生较大的等离子体电流和较强的太赫兹辐射。计算结果显示:尽管这种特殊整形的飞秒激光脉冲能量有所损失,它能够比普通双色飞秒激光脉冲产生更强、更宽的太赫兹脉冲辐射。该项研究为基于激光等离子体作用的太赫兹辐射源提供了新的思路。     

Terahertz Radiation Shaping Based on Third-Order Dispersion and Self-Phase Modulation in Standard Single-Mode Optical Fiber

Third-order dispersion and self-phase modulation in standard single-mode fibers are employed in a fiber-based THz time domain spectroscopy system for radiation shaping. Ultra-short optical pulses are converted into trains of pulses, thus shaping the THz radiation emitted by photoconductive antennas operating at telecom wavelengths. The proposed architecture allows narrowband and wideband THz emission as well as tunability of the central frequency. Since the shaping takes place in standard optical fiber the architecture could be potentially implemented without requiring any additional device. Experiments showing the principle of operation have been performed demonstrating tunability of the central frequency between 350 and 800 GHz and bandwidth from 150 GHz to the full bandwidth of the system.     

高强度激光对光学薄膜的破坏

在薄膜破坏中起主要作用的是个别的脉冲尖峰。分析了薄膜结构对薄膜受破坏的影响,以及SiO_2保护膜在提高ZrO_2/SiO_2膜的抗激光强度中的作用。     

Analysis of Linewidth Tunable Terahertz Wave Generation in Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate

A new scheme of optical rectification of femtosecond laser pulses in a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal, which generates high energy and linewidth tunable multicycle terahertz (THz) pulses, is analyzed. The developed simple theoretical model allows investigating the generated THz spectrum and its dependence on spot size of the pump beam. It is shown that the transformation of THz radiation from narrowband to broadband is possible by simply reducing the pump beam size. The temporal waveform and energy of the multicycle THz pulses were calculated as well. It is shown that THz energy is inversely proportional to the pump beam size r _y , whereas energy spectral density is independent of r _y . The efficiency of optical-to-THz energy conversion for pump pulse energy of 1?mJ is estimated to be 0.8?×?10^?4. The possibility of tuning the generation frequency by changing the direction of the pump beam propagation is analyzed.     

Measurement of spatio-temporal terahertz field distribution byusing chirped pulse technology

The authors report the use of an optoelectronic system for the measurement of terahertz (THz) pulses by using chirped pulse technology. This system measures the spatio-temporal distribution of free-space pulsed radiation with an unprecedented data acquisition-rate. Using a linearly chirped optical probe pulse with an electro-optic crystal, a temporal waveform of a copropagating THz field is linearly encoded onto the frequency spectrum of the optical probe pulse and then decoded by dispersing the probe beam from a grating to a detector array. Acquisition of picosecond THz field pulses without using mechanical time-delay devices have been achieved. A single-shot electro-optic measurement of the temporal waveform of a THz pulse has been demonstrated. Unparalleled by other THz sampling techniques, this single-shot method provides what is believed to be the highest possible data-acquisition rate. Temporal resolution, sensitivity, optimal optical bias point of electro-optic modulation, potential applications, and possible improvements are also discussed. In principle, this technique can also be used in magneto-optic measurements     

High power THz sources and applications at ENEA-Frascati

ENEA has a long term expertise in the development of powerful short-pulse mm-wave and THz radiation sources driven by free electrons. Various electron-wave interaction schemes were successfully tested in the past, including Cerenkov and Smith-Purcell radiators as well as undulator devices. Two THz-FEL sources are currently available, covering altogether the spectral range from 90 GHz to 0.7 THz. Recently a novel Electro-Magnetic pulser, capable of providing both nanosecond THz electromagnetic (EM) radiation pulses and electrostatic (ES) pulses with identical time duration in one device has been designed and is currently under development. The pulser will allow, for the first time, direct comparison of EM and ES pulses on biological systems with peak electric fields that are significantly higher than any reported to date.