Generation of tunable narrow-band surface-emitted terahertz radiation in periodically poled lithium

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April15,2001/Vol.26,No.8/OPTICSLETTERS563Generationoftunablenarrow-bandsurface-emittedterahertzradiationinperiodicallypoledlithiumniobate

C.WeissandG.TorosyanFachbereichPhysik,UniversitätKaiserslautern,Erwin-SchrödingerStrasse,KaiserslauternD-67663,Germany

Y.AvetisyanDepartmentofMicrowaveEngineering,YerevanStateUniversity,Yerevan,Armenia

R.BeigangFachbereichPhysik,UniversitätKaiserslautern,Erwin-SchrödingerStrasse,KaiserslauternD-67663,Germany

ReceivedOctober10,2000Generationoftunablenarrow-bandterahertz(THz)radiationperpendiculartothesurfaceofperiodicallypoledlithiumniobatebyopticalrectificationoffemtosecondpulsesisreported.ThegeneratedTHzradiationcanbetunedbyuseofdifferentpolingperiodsanddifferentobservationangles,limitedonlybytheavailablebandwidthofthepumppulse.Typicalbandwidthswere50–100GHz,dependingonthecollectionangleandthenumberofperiodsinvolved.©2001OpticalSocietyofAmericaOCIScodes:320.7110,190.2620.

Generationofshort-pulseterahertz(THz)radiationwithultrashortlaserpulsesbyuseoffastphotocon-ductiveswitches,semiconductorsurfaces,oropticalrectificationinshortnonlinearcrystalsisawell-establishedtechnique.1–3Single-cyclepulseswitha

largebandwidthextendingfromalmostdctoseveraltensofTHzhavebeendemonstrated.Recently,Leeandco-workersreportednarrow-bandTHzgenerationbyopticalrectificationinperiodicallypoledlithiumniobate(PPLN).4,5TheTHzwaveformcorresponds

tothedomainstructureofthePPLNcrystalwithabandwidthproportionaltothecrystallengthandacenterfrequencythatisdeterminedbythepolingperiodandthegroup-velocitymismatchbetweenthenear-infraredpumpandthegeneratedTHzwave.ThecrystallengthusedintheirexperimentwaslimitedbythestrongabsorptionofPPLNinthiswavelengthrange.InthisLetterwereportongenerationofnar-row-bandtunableTHzradiation,whichisemittedperpendicularlytothesurfaceofthePPLNcrystal,byopticalrectificationinPPLN.InthiswaythepathlengthwithinthePPLNcrystalcanbereducedconsid-erablyandtheareaofTHzemissioncanbeenlarged,resultinginasmallerdivergenceandpossiblyhigheroutputpower.ThisapproachtoTHzgenerationisacombinationofˇCerenkov-typegenerationandquasi-phase-matcheddifference-frequencymixingandwasfirstproposedbyAvetisyanandKocharian.6One

canchangethecenterfrequencyoftheTHzwavebychangingtheperiodofthePPLNorthedirectionofTHzemission,andthecenterfrequencyislimitedonlybytheavailablebandwidthofthepumppulses.AnultrashortpulsetravelingthroughaPPLNcrys-talpolarizedalongthezaxis(seeFig.1)generatesapolarizationalongthezaxisbydifference-frequencygenerationbetweenthespectralcomponentsoftheul-trashortlaserpulse.Anonlinearpolarizationineach

poledsegmentofthePPLNwillbeinducedaccord-ingto

PzNL෇d͑x͒E1E2

ءf͑y,z͒g

µ

t2x

vg

∂.(1)

Heredisthenonlinearcoefficient,E1andE2arethefieldsofthetwowavelengthcomponentsusedfordif-ference-frequencygeneration,f͑y,z͒describestheirfielddistributionsintheyandzdirections,vgisthe

groupvelocityofthepumpbeam,andg͑t͒describesthetemporalprofileofthepulse.ThepolarizationgivesrisetoemissionofaTHzwave.Radiationperpendiculartothepropagationdirec-tionofthepumpbeamcanbeobservedbecausethepumpbeamisfocusedtoabeamsizesmallerthanthewavelengthofthegeneratedTHzwave.Thepreciselocalizationofthepumpbeamperpendiculartothedirectionofpropagationresultsinawave-vectoruncertaintyDkofthepumpbeam.Thecorrespond-ingwave-vectordiagramforquasi-phase-matcheddifference-frequencygenerationisshowninFig.2fortwodifferentanglesofTHzemission.Toobeythelawofmomentumconservation,DkhastobeequaltothecomponentoftheTHzwavevectorkTHzperpendicular

tothedirectionofpropagationofthepumpbeam.TheminimumangleFdependsonthemaximumwave-vectoruncertaintyDkcausedbythelaterallocalization;i.e.,forperpendicularemissionatight

Fig.1.SchematicdiagramofthePPLNcrystalforsur-face-emittingTHzgeneration.

0146-9592/01/080563-03$15.00/0©2001OpticalSocietyofAmerica564OPTICSLETTERS/Vol.26,No.8/April15,2001Fig.2.Schematicwave-vectordiagram(nottoscale).focusisrequired.Fromthewave-vectordiagramitfollowsthat

k12͑k21kL1kTHz1Dk͒෇0.(2)

ThefrequencyVoftheTHzwaveemittedunderanangleFisobtainedfromEq.(2)andthelawofenergyconservation:

V෇cL1jnIR2nTHzsinFj.(3)HereListhepolingperiod,andnIRandnTHzarethe

group-velocityindicesofrefractionforthepumpandtheTHzwaves,respectively.OnecaneasilytunetheTHzradiationbychangingtheangleofobservation.TheanglesF෇90±andF෇290±correspondtoTHz

radiationintheforwardandbackwarddirections,re-spectively,aswasobservedbyLeeetal.4InthisLetterweconcentrateonthebasicpropertiesandresultsoftheTHzemissionperpendiculartothesurfaceanditsdependenceonthelengthofthePPLNcrystal,thecollectingangle,andtheangleofobserva-tion.BecauseofthehighindexofrefractionofPPLNintheTHzrange͑nTHz