Projects per year
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 |
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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 | |
Publication status | Published - 5 Mar 2019 |
Keywords
- laser-plasma interaction
- terahertz radiation
- coherent transition radiation
- extreme terahertz science
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Dive into the research topics of 'Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Profiles
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Nonlinear Optics and Dynamics of Relativistically Transparent Plasmas
McKenna, P., Gray, R. & King, M.
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
1/11/17 → 31/10/22
Project: Research
Datasets
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Data for: "Multi-millijoule coherent terahertz bursts from picosecond laser-irradiated metal foils"
Armstrong, C. (Creator), Zemaityte, E. (Creator), McKenna, P. (Creator) & Sheng, Z. (Creator), 3 Sep 2019
DOI: 10.5286/edata/722
Dataset