Elliptically polarized terahertz radiation from a chiral oxide

Journal Article · Mon Sep 28 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4932378· OSTI ID:22482161

Takeda, R.; Sotome, M.; Okamoto, H. ^[1]

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1. Department of Advanced Materials Science, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwa-no-ha, Chiba 277-8561 (Japan)

Polarization control of terahertz wave is a challenging subject in terahertz science and technology. Here, we report a simple method to control polarization state of the terahertz wave in terahertz generation process. At room temperature, terahertz radiation from a noncentrosymmetric and chiral oxide, sillenite Bi{sub 12}GeO{sub 20}, is observed by the irradiation of linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulses at 800 nm. The polarization state of the emitted terahertz wave is found to be elliptic with an ellipticity of ∼0.37 ± 0.10. Furthermore, the ellipticity was altered to a nearly zero (∼0.01 ± 0.01) by changing the polarization of the incident linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulses. Such a terahertz radiation characteristic is attributable to variation of the polarization state of the emitted terahertz waves, which is induced by retardation due to the velocity mismatch between the incident femtosecond laser pulse and generated terahertz wave and by the polarization tilting due to the optical activity at 800 nm.

• OSTI ID: 22482161
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 107; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CHIRALITY
CONTROL
IRRADIATION
LASERS
OPTICAL ACTIVITY
OXIDES
POLARIZATION
PULSES
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
VARIATIONS
VELOCITY