Abstract

In recent years, there has been significant interest in developing broadband coherent detection schemes for ultrashort electromagnetic pulses. One specific technique, free-space electro-optic sampling, has been used with success,^1-4 largely because the detection media possess a nearly instantaneous optical nonlinearity, reasonable transparency to electromagnetic radiation across much of the far- and mid-infrared, and phase- matching criteria that are amenable to ultrafast lasers. Nevertheless, inorganic crystals that have been used for this application^2,3 exhibit gaps in the response function due to strong absorption in the crystal at phonon frequencies and reduced re sponsivity at high THz frequencies due to phase mismatch conditions. In this submission, we demonstrate that poled polymers are an attractive detection medium for the coherent detection of broadband electromagnetic pulses. Of particular importance is the fact that the poled polymer used in this study exhibits a nearly flat spectral response from the far-infrared to the mid-infrared.

© 2002 Optical Society of America