Strong terahertz radiation from air plasmas generated by an aperture-limited Gaussian pump laser beam

Journal Article · Mon Mar 09 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3098357· OSTI ID:21176022

Xiaoyu, Peng; Toncian, Toma; Jung, Ralph; Willi, Oswald ^[1]; Chun, Li; Yutong, Li; Weimin, Wang; Shoujun, Wang; Feng, Liu ^[2]; Min, Chen; Pukhov, Alexander ^[3]; Zhengming, Sheng; Jie, Zhang ^[2]

---

1. Institut fuer Laser-und Plasmaphysik, Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, 40225 (Germany)
2. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080 (China)
3. Institut fuer Theoretische physik I, Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, 40225 (Germany)

Terahertz radiation generated by focusing the fundamental laser pulse and its second harmonic into ambient air strongly saturates with increasing pump laser energy. We demonstrate a simple method to control the Gaussian pump laser beam to improve the output of terahertz radiation with an adjustable aperture. With the optimal aperture-limited pump laser beams, the terahertz wave amplitudes can be enhanced by more than eight times depending on the pump laser parameters than those of aperture-free cases.

• OSTI ID: 21176022
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 94, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3098357; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
APERTURES
FOCUSING
HARMONIC GENERATION
LASERS
OPTICAL PUMPING
PLASMA
PLASMA PRODUCTION