Optimized Optical Rectification and Electrooptic

Authors: Dines Nøddegaard Erschens Dmitry Turchinovich Peter Uhd Jepsen

Publish Date: 2011/09/22

Volume: 32, Issue: 12, Pages: 1371-1381

PDF Link

Abstract

We report on optimization of the intensity of THz signals generated and detected by optical rectification and electrooptic sampling in dispersive nonlinear media Addition of a negative prechirp to the femtosecond laser pulses used in the THz generation and detection processes in 1mm 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 twophoton absorption is responsible for the increased efficiency enhancement observed at high excitation intensity

Keywords: