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We propose a short period undulator based on the electromagnetic field pattern in a THz-driven split ring resonator structure. An analytical model is developed that allows us to assess the key performance parameters of the undulator and to estimate the emitted radiation spectrum. Different geometric configurations are compared in detail using numerical simulations. A 100 MeV electron bunch with 5 pC charge is shown to emit narrow band 83 eV photon pulses with a peak brightness of approximately 10^{19} photons/(s mrad^{2} mm^{2} 0.1% BW) when passing through the 100 mm long undulator with a 1 mm period.

Near- and far-field beam profiles were measured for THz pulses generated in LiNbO _3 by optical rectification of 200 fs pulses with a tilted pulse front. The variation of the THz beam size and a dramatically increasing divergence angle with increasing pump fluence were observed in the (horizontal) plane of the pulse front tilt. No significant variation was observed in the vertical direction. The reason for the observed nonlinear beam distortion is the shortening of the effective interaction length for THz generation caused by the combined effect of pump spectral broadening and angular dispersion in the tilted pulse front geometry. Our results indicate that nonlinear THz beam distortion effects have to be taken into account when designing intense THz sources and related experiments.

For decades, it was considered all but impossible to perform Stark spectroscopy on molecules in a liquid solution, because their concomitant orientation to the applied electric field results in overwhelming background signals. A way out was to immobilize the solute molecules by freezing the solvent. While mitigating solute orientation, freezing removes the possibility to study molecules in liquid environments at ambient conditions. Here we demonstrate time-resolved THz Stark spectroscopy, utilizing intense single-cycle terahertz pulses as electric field source. At THz frequencies, solute molecules have no time to orient their dipole moments. Hence, dynamic Stark spectroscopy on the time scales of molecular vibrations or rotations in both non-polar and polar solvents at arbitrary temperatures is now possible. We verify THz Stark spectroscopy for two judiciously selected molecular systems and compare the results to conventional Stark spectroscopy and first principle calculations., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The advent of intense terahertz (THz) sources opened a new era when the demonstration of the acceleration and manipulation of free electrons by THz pulses became within reach. THz-field-driven electron emission was predicted to be confined to a single burst due to the single-cycle waveform. Here we demonstrate the confinement of single-cycle THz-waveform-driven electron emission to one of the two half cycles from a solid surface emitter. Either the leading or the trailing half cycle was active, controlled by reversing the field polarity. THz-driven single-burst surface electron emission sources, which do not rely on field-enhancement structures, will impact the development of THz-powered electron acceleration and manipulation devices, all-THz compact electron sources, THz waveguides and telecommunication, THz-field-based measurement techniques and solid-state devices., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Intensity-dependent effective four-photon absorption (4PA) coefficients in GaP and ZnTe semiconductors were measured by the z-scan method using pump pulses of 1.75 µm wavelength, 135 fs duration, and up to 500 GWcm -2 intensity. A nonlinear pulse propagation model, including linear dispersion and 4PA was used to obtain the 4PA coefficients from measurements. The intensity-dependent effective 4PA coefficients vary from 2.6 × 10 -4 to 65 × 10 -4 cm 5 GW -3 in GaP, and from 3.5 × 10 -4 to 9.1 × 10 -4 cm 5 GW -3 in ZnTe. The anisotropy in 4PA was shown in GaP. The knowledge of 4PA coefficients is important for the design of semiconductor photonics devices.

Controlling light polarization is one of the most essential routines in modern optical technology. Since the demonstration of optical pulse shaping by spatial light modulators and its potential in controlling the quantum reaction pathways, it paved the way for many applications as a coherent control of the photoionization process or as polarization shaping of terahertz (THz) pulses. Here, we evidenced efficient nonresonant and noncollinear χ (2) -type light-matter interaction in femtosecond polarization-sensitive time-resolved optical measurements. Such nonlinear optical interaction of visible light and ultrashort THz pulses leads to THz modulation of visible light polarization in bulk LiNbO 3 crystal. Theoretical simulations based on the wave propagation equation capture the physical processes underlying this nonlinear effect. Apart from the observed tunable polarization modulation of visible pulses at ultrahigh frequencies, this physical phenomenon can be envisaged in THz depth-profiling of materials.

Conception of a hybrid type tilted-pulse-front pumping scheme for the generation of high-energy terahertz pulses is presented. The proposed setup is the combination of the conventional setup containing imaging optics and the contact grating. The solution was developed for nonlinear materials requiring large pulse-front-tilt angle, like LiNbO 3 . Due to the creation of the pulse-front-tilt in two steps the limitations of imaging errors can be significantly reduced. Furthermore the necessary grating constant of the contact grating can be larger compared to the simple contact grating scheme making possible the fabrication of the grating profile with significantly higher precision. A detailed optimization procedure with respect to the diffraction efficiency on the contact grating is given for LiNbO 3 . Instructions are also given how to construct the geometry of the setup in order to minimize imaging errors. Examples are given for LiNbO 3 based practically realizable, optimized schemes with reduced imaging errors and high diffraction efficiency on the contact grating.

Efficient generation of THz pulses with high energy was demonstrated by optical rectification of 785-fs laser pulses in lithium niobate using tilted-pulse-front pumping. The enhancement of conversion efficiency by a factor of 2.4 to 2.7 was demonstrated up to 186 μJ THz energy by cryogenic cooling of the generating crystal and using up to 18.5 mJ/cm2 pump fluence. Generation of THz pulses with more than 0.4 mJ energy and 0.77% efficiency was demonstrated even at room temperature by increasing the pump fluence to 186 mJ/cm2. The spectral peak is at about 0.2 THz, suitable for charged-particle manipulation.