Multimillijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils

TY - JOUR

T1 - Multimillijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils

AU - Liao, Guoqian

AU - Li, Yutong

AU - Liu, Hao

AU - Scott, Graeme G.

AU - Neely, David

AU - Zhu, Baojun

AU - Armstrong, Chris

AU - Zhang, Zhe

AU - Zemaityte, Egle

AU - Bradford, Philip

AU - Huggard, Peter G.

AU - Rusby, Dean R.

AU - McKenna, Paul

AU - Brenner, Ceri M.

AU - Woolsey, Nigel C.

AU - Zhang, Yihang

AU - Wang, Weimin

AU - Sheng, Zhengming

AU - Zhang, Jie

N1 - Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

PY - 2019/3/5

Y1 - 2019/3/5

N2 - Ultrahigh-power terahertz (THz) radiation sources are essential for many applications, for example, THz-wave-based compact accelerators and THz control over matter. However, to date none of the THz sources reported, whether based upon large-scale accelerators or high-power lasers, have produced THz pulses with energies above the millijoule (mJ) level. Here, we report a substantial increase in THz pulse energy, as high as tens of mJ, generated by a high-intensity, picosecond laser pulse irradiating a metal foil. A further up-scaling of THz energy by a factor of ∼4 is observed when introducing preplasmas at the target-rear side. Experimental measurements and theoretical models identify the dominant THz generation mechanism to be coherent transition radiation, induced by the laser-accelerated energetic electron bunch escaping the target. Observation of THz-field-induced carrier multiplication in high-resistivity silicon is presented as a proof-of-concept application demonstration. Such an extremely high THz energy not only triggers various nonlinear dynamics in matter, but also opens up the research era of relativistic THz optics.

AB - Ultrahigh-power terahertz (THz) radiation sources are essential for many applications, for example, THz-wave-based compact accelerators and THz control over matter. However, to date none of the THz sources reported, whether based upon large-scale accelerators or high-power lasers, have produced THz pulses with energies above the millijoule (mJ) level. Here, we report a substantial increase in THz pulse energy, as high as tens of mJ, generated by a high-intensity, picosecond laser pulse irradiating a metal foil. A further up-scaling of THz energy by a factor of ∼4 is observed when introducing preplasmas at the target-rear side. Experimental measurements and theoretical models identify the dominant THz generation mechanism to be coherent transition radiation, induced by the laser-accelerated energetic electron bunch escaping the target. Observation of THz-field-induced carrier multiplication in high-resistivity silicon is presented as a proof-of-concept application demonstration. Such an extremely high THz energy not only triggers various nonlinear dynamics in matter, but also opens up the research era of relativistic THz optics.

KW - Coherent transition

KW - Extreme terahertz science

KW - Laser–plasma interaction

KW - Radiation

KW - Terahertz radiation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062504814&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1815256116

DO - 10.1073/pnas.1815256116

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85062504814

SN - 0027-8424

VL - 116

SP - 3994

EP - 3999

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

IS - 10

ER -