RESUMEN
Spintronic terahertz emitters promise terahertz sources with an unmatched broad frequency bandwidth that are easy to fabricate and operate, and therefore easy to scale at low cost. However, current experiments and proofs of concept rely on free-space ultrafast pump lasers and rather complex benchtop setups. This contrasts with the requirements of widespread industrial applications, where robust, compact, and safe designs are needed. To meet these requirements, we present a novel fiber-tip spintronic terahertz emitter solution that allows spintronic terahertz systems to be fully fiber-coupled. Using single-mode fiber waveguiding, the newly developed solution naturally leads to a simple and straightforward terahertz near-field imaging system with a 90%-10% knife-edge-response spatial resolution of 30 µm.
RESUMEN
Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy systems based on resonator-internal repetition-rate modulation, such as SLAPCOPS and ECOPS, rely on electronic phase detectors which are typically prone to exhibit both a non-negligible random and systematic timing error. This limits the quality of the recorded information significantly. Here, we present the results of our recent attempt to reduce these errors in our own electronic phase detection systems. A more than six-fold timing-jitter reduction from 59.0 fs to 8.6 fs led to a significant increase in both exploitable terahertz bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, utilizing our interferometrically monitored delay line as a calibration standard, the systematic error could be removed almost entirely and thus, excellent resolution of spectral absorption lines be accomplished. These improvements increased the accuracy of our multi-layer thickness measurements based on electronic phase detection by more than a factor of five, pushing the overall performance well into the sub-µm regime.