We present a review of the development of a compact and high-power broadband terahertz (THz) source optically excited by a femtosecond photonic crystal fiber (PCF) amplifier.The large mode area of the PCF and the ...We present a review of the development of a compact and high-power broadband terahertz (THz) source optically excited by a femtosecond photonic crystal fiber (PCF) amplifier.The large mode area of the PCF and the stretcher-free configuration make the pump source compact and very efficient.Broadband THz pulses of 150 μW extending from 0.1 to 3.5 THz are generated from a 3-mm-thick GaP crystal through optical rectification of 12-W pump pulses with duration of 66 fs and a repetition rate of 52 MHz.A strong saturation effect is observed,which is attributed to pump pulse absorption;a Z-scan measurement shows that three-photon absorption dominates the nonlinear absorption when the crystal is pumped by femtosecond pulses at 1 040 nm.A further scale-up of the THz source power is expected to find important applications in THz nonlinear optics and nonlinear THz spectroscopy.展开更多
基金supported partly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61077083, 61027013,61078028,and 60838004)the National Basic Research Program of China (Nos. 2007CB310408, 2010CB327604,and 2011CB808101)+3 种基金the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (No. 200800560026)the Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China (No. 2007B34)the 111 Project (No. B07014)the Program for New Century Talents in University (No. NCET-07-0597)
文摘We present a review of the development of a compact and high-power broadband terahertz (THz) source optically excited by a femtosecond photonic crystal fiber (PCF) amplifier.The large mode area of the PCF and the stretcher-free configuration make the pump source compact and very efficient.Broadband THz pulses of 150 μW extending from 0.1 to 3.5 THz are generated from a 3-mm-thick GaP crystal through optical rectification of 12-W pump pulses with duration of 66 fs and a repetition rate of 52 MHz.A strong saturation effect is observed,which is attributed to pump pulse absorption;a Z-scan measurement shows that three-photon absorption dominates the nonlinear absorption when the crystal is pumped by femtosecond pulses at 1 040 nm.A further scale-up of the THz source power is expected to find important applications in THz nonlinear optics and nonlinear THz spectroscopy.