Abstract

We have previously shown that optical rectification of femtosecond laser pulses in electro-optic materials produces a Cerenkov cone of an extremely short electromagnetic pulse with a duration of ≃ 300 fsec and a frequency spectrum extending up to 6 THz¹. In ionic crystals the far infrared pulse is strongly coupled to the transverse optical lattice modes, thus propagating as a polariton, i.e. a coupled phonon-photon excitation. The coherent polariton can be traced in time and space as it travels away from the generating optical femtosecond pulse.

© 1986 Optical Society of America