Phase-locked generation and field-resolved detection of widely tunable terahertz pulses with amplitudes exceeding 100 MV/cm

摘要

Phase-locked terahertz transients with peak electric fields of 108 MV/cm and center frequencies continu-nously tunable from 10 to 72 THz are generated via difference-frequency mixing of two parametrically am-nplified pulse trains from a single white-light seed. Free space electro-optic sampling with 8fs gating pulsesnfrom a two-branch Er:fiber laser allows us to monitor all transients directly in the time domain. We identifynextreme terahertz nonlinearities in the detector crystal with subcycle resolution. © 2008 Optical Society ofnAmerica