Frequency-resolved measurement of two-color air plasma terahertz emission

We investigated the far-field terahertz beam profile generated from an air plasma induced by two-color femtosecond laser pulses. Under our experimental conditions (filament length shorter than the dephasing length between the two-color pulses), using electro-optic sampling in both ZnTe (0.2–2.2 THz)...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hase Eiji, Degert Jérôme, Freysz Eric, Yasui Takeshi, Abraham Emmanuel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: EDP Sciences 2024-01-01
Series:Journal of the European Optical Society-Rapid Publications
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Online Access:https://jeos.edpsciences.org/articles/jeos/full_html/2024/02/jeos20240050/jeos20240050.html
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Summary:We investigated the far-field terahertz beam profile generated from an air plasma induced by two-color femtosecond laser pulses. Under our experimental conditions (filament length shorter than the dephasing length between the two-color pulses), using electro-optic sampling in both ZnTe (0.2–2.2 THz) and GaP (0.4–6.8 THz) crystals, and ultra-broadband ABCD technique (1–17.5 THz), we determined that the THz beam exhibits a unimodal beam pattern below 4 THz and a conical one above 6 THz. This experimental finding is consistent with theoretical studies based on the unidirectional pulse propagation equation, which predict the transition of THz emission from a flat-top profile to a conical one due to the destructive interference of THz waves emitted from the plasma filament. Our results also underscore the importance of accounting for experimental artifacts, such as photo-excited losses in silicon resulting in on-axis THz absorption along with the influence of drilled mirrors, in characterizing the complex spatial and frequency-dependent behavior of two-color plasma-induced terahertz emission.
ISSN:1990-2573