Long propagating velocity-controlled Einstein’s mirror for terahertz light conversion

We show that Einstein’s relativistic mirror with long (hundreds of µ m) propagation distance and controllable propagation velocity can be implemented in the form of a dense free carrier front generated by multiphoton absorption of tilted-pulse-front femtosecond laser pulses in a dielectric or semico...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2020-10, Vol.28 (22), p.33084-33093
Main Authors: Kurnikov, M. A., Novokovskaya, A. L., Efimenko, E. S., Bakunov, M. I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We show that Einstein’s relativistic mirror with long (hundreds of µ m) propagation distance and controllable propagation velocity can be implemented in the form of a dense free carrier front generated by multiphoton absorption of tilted-pulse-front femtosecond laser pulses in a dielectric or semiconductor medium. The velocity control is achieved by varying the pulse front tilt angle. Simulations demonstrate that such fronts can serve as efficient Doppler-type converters of terahertz pulses. In particular, the pulse reflected from a front, generated by three-photon absorption of a Ti:sapphire laser in ZnS, can exhibit strong (up to more than an order of magnitude) pulse compression and spectrum broadening without a noticeable amplitude change. The proposed technique may be used to convert strong low-frequency terahertz pulses, generated by optical rectification of tilted-pulse-front laser pulses, to desirable temporal and spectral characteristics for a variety of applications.
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.405032