Abstract

Intense THz light is an indispensable tool for nonlinear THz spectroscopy, which can control molecular orientation, lattice vibration, spin, and so on. Presently, the optical rectification in a Mg-doped LiNbO₃ (LN) crystal with pulse-front control of the pump pulse is widely used as the most effective method for obtaining intense THz light [1]. To further increase intensity of the THz light with increasing intensity of the pump light, large-area excitation of the crystal is required to prevent damage to the crystal from the intense pump light. The commonly used setup in which the pump pulse front is tilted by a diffraction grating and imaged onto the LN prism, however, is unsuitable for large-area excitation, since any error in imaging of the pulse front increases for large-area excitation and limits the efficiency of THz light generation.

© 2015 IEEE