Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils

Guoqiang Liao; Yutong Li; Hao Liu; Graeme G. Scott; David Neely; Yihang Zhang; Baojun Zhu; Zhe Zhang; Chris Armstrong; Egle Zemaityte; Phil Bradford; Peter G. Huggard; Dean R. Rusby; Paul McKenna; Ceri M. Brenner; Nigel C. Woolsey; Weimin Wang; Zhengming Sheng; Jie Zhang

doi:10.1073/pnas.1815256116

Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils

Guoqiang Liao, Yutong Li, Hao Liu, Graeme G. Scott, David Neely, Yihang Zhang, Baojun Zhu, Zhe Zhang, Chris Armstrong, Egle Zemaityte, Phil Bradford, Peter G. Huggard, Dean R. Rusby, Paul McKenna, Ceri M. Brenner, Nigel C. Woolsey, Weimin Wang, Zhengming Sheng, Jie Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

11 Citations (Scopus)

17 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

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 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 new research era of relativistic THz optics.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3994-3999
Number of pages	6
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume	116
Issue number	10
Early online date	13 Feb 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1815256116
Publication status	Published - 5 Mar 2019

Fingerprint

metal foils

bursts

lasers

accelerators

pulses

energy

radiation sources

multiplication

high power lasers

actuators

optics

scaling

electrical resistivity

silicon

radiation

electrons

Keywords

laser-plasma interaction
terahertz radiation
coherent transition radiation
extreme terahertz science

Cite this

Liao, G., Li, Y., Liu, H., Scott, G. G., Neely, D., Zhang, Y., ... Zhang, J. (2019). Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 116(10), 3994-3999. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1815256116

Liao, Guoqiang ; Li, Yutong ; Liu, Hao ; Scott, Graeme G. ; Neely, David ; Zhang, Yihang ; Zhu, Baojun ; Zhang, Zhe ; Armstrong, Chris ; Zemaityte, Egle ; Bradford, Phil ; Huggard, Peter G. ; Rusby, Dean R. ; McKenna, Paul ; Brenner, Ceri M. ; Woolsey, Nigel C. ; Wang, Weimin ; Sheng, Zhengming ; Zhang, Jie. / Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 2019 ; Vol. 116, No. 10. pp. 3994-3999.

@article{494e1a3c4aeb4c8e859a521c5197a5aa,

title = "Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils",

abstract = "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 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 new research era of relativistic THz optics.",

keywords = "laser-plasma interaction, terahertz radiation, coherent transition radiation, extreme terahertz science",

author = "Guoqiang Liao and Yutong Li and Hao Liu and Scott, {Graeme G.} and David Neely and Yihang Zhang and Baojun Zhu and Zhe Zhang and Chris Armstrong and Egle Zemaityte and Phil Bradford and Huggard, {Peter G.} and Rusby, {Dean R.} and Paul McKenna and Brenner, {Ceri M.} and Woolsey, {Nigel C.} and Weimin Wang and Zhengming Sheng and Jie Zhang",

year = "2019",

month = "3",

day = "5",

doi = "10.1073/pnas.1815256116",

language = "English",

volume = "116",

pages = "3994--3999",

journal = "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences",

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Liao, G, Li, Y, Liu, H, Scott, GG, Neely, D, Zhang, Y, Zhu, B, Zhang, Z, Armstrong, C , Zemaityte, E, Bradford, P, Huggard, PG, Rusby, DR, McKenna, P, Brenner, CM, Woolsey, NC, Wang, W, Sheng, Z & Zhang, J 2019, 'Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , vol. 116, no. 10, pp. 3994-3999. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1815256116

Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils. / Liao, Guoqiang; Li, Yutong; Liu, Hao; Scott, Graeme G.; Neely, David; Zhang, Yihang; Zhu, Baojun; Zhang, Zhe; Armstrong, Chris ; Zemaityte, Egle; Bradford, Phil; Huggard, Peter G.; Rusby, Dean R.; McKenna, Paul; Brenner, Ceri M.; Woolsey, Nigel C.; Wang, Weimin; Sheng, Zhengming; Zhang, Jie.

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Vol. 116, No. 10, 05.03.2019, p. 3994-3999.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

TY - JOUR

T1 - Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils

AU - Liao, Guoqiang

AU - Li, Yutong

AU - Liu, Hao

AU - Scott, Graeme G.

AU - Neely, David

AU - Zhang, Yihang

AU - Zhu, Baojun

AU - Zhang, Zhe

AU - Armstrong, Chris

AU - Zemaityte, Egle

AU - Bradford, Phil

AU - Huggard, Peter G.

AU - Rusby, Dean R.

AU - McKenna, Paul

AU - Brenner, Ceri M.

AU - Woolsey, Nigel C.

AU - Wang, Weimin

AU - Sheng, Zhengming

AU - Zhang, Jie

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 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 new 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 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 new research era of relativistic THz optics.

KW - laser-plasma interaction

KW - terahertz radiation

KW - coherent transition radiation

KW - extreme terahertz science

UR - https://www.pnas.org/content/by/year

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1815256116

DO - 10.1073/pnas.1815256116

M3 - Article

VL - 116

SP - 3994

EP - 3999

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences