Extremely broadband terahertz generation via pulse compression of an Ytterbium laser amplifier.

ABSTRACT

We present a system for extremely broadband terahertz (THz) generation based on an Ytterbium (Yb) amplified laser emitting 170-fs-long pulses centered at 1030 nm. The pulses are first spectrally broadened in an Ar-filled hollow-core capillary fiber (HCF) and then recompressed down to ∼18 fs with a chirped-mirror pair. Extreme broadband THz pulses of bandwidths up to 60 THz and peak electric field as high as 55 kV/cm are obtained via two-color plasma generation. The combination of high-power Yb laser systems with gas-filled HCF opens the path towards the realization of the next generation high-repetition-rate, extremely broadband, and intense-field THz time-domain spectroscopy systems.