Open AccessTerahertz time-domain polarimetry (THz-TDP) based on the spinning E-O sampling technique: determination of precision and calibration
Author(s) -
Kuangyi Xu,
Elyas Bayati,
Kohei Oguchi,
Shinichi Watanabe,
Dale P. Winebrenner,
M. Hassan Arbab
Publication year - 2020
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.389651
Subject(s) - terahertz radiation , optics , polarimetry , calibration , materials science , terahertz spectroscopy and technology , spinning , time domain , sampling (signal processing) , optoelectronics , physics , detector , scattering , computer science , quantum mechanics , computer vision , composite material
We have developed a terahertz time-domain polarimetry (THz-TDP) system by applying frequency modulation to electro-optic sampling detection in a nonlinear crystal. We characterized the precision of this system in determining the polarization angles to be 1.3 ° for fixed time delay, and 0.5 ° for complete time-domain waveform. Furthermore, we calculated the Jones matrix of the optical components used for beam propagation to calibrate the induced systematic error. The advantages of employing this calibration approach are demonstrated on a sapphire crystal investigated at different sample test positions in transmission configuration, and using high resistivity Si, AlN and quartz in reflection geometry. The new THz-TDP technique has the advantage of not using any external polarizers, and therefore is not constrained by their optical performance limitations, such as restricted bandwidths and frequency-dependent extinction ratio. Finally, the THz-TDP technique can be easily implemented on existing time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) systems.