Abstract

We describe what are to our knowledge the first measurements of the propagation of coherent, single-cycle pulses of terahertz radiation in a scattering medium. By measuring the transmission as a function of the length $L$ of the medium, we extract the scattering mean free path $l_s\left(\omega \right)$ over a broad bandwidth. We observe variations in $l_s$ ranging over nearly 2 orders of magnitude and covering the entire thin sample regime from $L/l_s\ll 1$ to $L/l_s\sim 10$. We also observe scattering-induced dispersive effects, which can be attributed to the additional path traveled by photons scattered at small angles.

© 2001 Optical Society of America

Spectral shifts as a signature of the onset of diffusion of broadband terahertz pulses

Jeremy Pearce, Zhongping Jian, and Daniel M. Mittleman
Opt. Lett. 29(24) 2926-2928 (2004)

Optical path-length spectroscopy of wave propagation in random media

G. Popescu and A. Dogariu
Opt. Lett. 24(7) 442-444 (1999)

Time reversal and object reconstruction with single-cycle pulses

A. Boh Ruffin, Joan Decker, Laurent Sanchez-Palencia, Lénaic Le Hors, John F. Whitaker, Theodore B. Norris, and J. V. Rudd
Opt. Lett. 26(10) 681-683 (2001)

Path-length-resolved dynamic light scattering: modeling the transition from single to diffusive scattering

Adam Wax, Changhuei Yang, Ramachandra R. Dasari, and Michael S. Feld
Appl. Opt. 40(24) 4222-4227 (2001)

Efficient generation of high-power quasi-single-cycle terahertz pulses from a single infrared beam in a second-order nonlinear medium

Yujie J. Ding
Opt. Lett. 29(22) 2650-2652 (2004)