Open AccessGeneration of high-field terahertz pulses in an HMQ-TMS organic crystal pumped by an ytterbium laser at 1030 nm
Author(s) -
Andrea Rovere,
Yonghwan Jeong,
Riccardo Piccoli,
Seung-Heon Lee,
Seung−Chul Lee,
OPil Kwon,
Mojca Jazbinšek,
Roberto Morandotti,
Luca Razzari
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.26.002509
Subject(s) - terahertz radiation , optical rectification , laser , materials science , optics , ytterbium , femtosecond , far infrared laser , terahertz spectroscopy and technology , electric field , optoelectronics , photomixing , nonlinear optics , physics , terahertz metamaterials , quantum mechanics
We present the generation of high-peak-electric-field terahertz pulses via collinear optical rectification in a 2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyryl)-1-methilquinolinium-2,4,6-trimethylbenzenesulfonate (HMQ-TMS) organic crystal. The crystal is pumped by an amplified ytterbium laser system, emitting 170-fs-long pulses centered at 1030 nm. A terahertz peak electric field greater than 200 kV/cm is obtained for 420 µJ of optical pump energy, with an energy conversion efficiency of 0.26% - about two orders of magnitude higher than in common inorganic crystals collinearly pumped by amplified femtosecond lasers. An open-aperture Z-scan measurement performed on an n-doped InGaAs thin film using such terahertz source shows a nonlinear increase in the terahertz transmission of about 2.2 times. Our findings demonstrate the potential of this terahertz generation scheme, based on ytterbium laser technology, as a simple and efficient alternative to the existing intense table-top terahertz sources. In particular, we show that it can be readily used to explore nonlinear effects at terahertz frequencies.