Abstract

We report the generation of ultrabroadband pulses spanning the 50-130 THz frequency range via phase-matched difference frequency mixing within the broad spectrum of sub-10 fs pulses in LiIO₃. Model calculations reproduce the octave-spanning spectra and predict few-cycle THz pulse durations less than 20 fs. The broad applicability of this scheme is demonstrated with 9-fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator and with 7-fs amplified pulses from a hollow fiber compressor as pump sources.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

» View Full Text: Acrobat PDF (287 KB)

History
Original Manuscript: February 9, 2007
Manuscript Accepted: April 15, 2007
Revised Manuscript: April 14, 2007
Published: April 26, 2007

References

1. S. Woutersen, U. Emmerichs, and H. J. Bakker, "Femtosecond mid-IR pump-probe spectroscopy of liquid water: Evidence for a two-component structure," Science 278, 658-660 (1997). [CrossRef]
2. R. A. Kaindl, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, D. C. Smith, J. F. Ryan, G. A. Farnan, M. P. McCurry, and D. G. Walmsley, "Ultrafast mid-infrared response of YBa2Cu3O7−δ," Science 287, 470-473 (2000). [CrossRef]
3. R. Huber, F. Tauser, A. Brodschelm, M. Bichler, G. Abstreiter, and A. Leitenstorfer, "How many-particle interactions develop after ultrafast excitation of an electron-hole plasma," Nature 414, 286-289 (2001). [CrossRef]
4. R. Huber, C. Kübler, S. Tübel, A. Leitenstorfer, Q. T. Vu, H. Haug, F. Köhler, and M.-C. Amann, "Femtosecond formation of phonon-plasmon coupled modes in InP: ultrabroadband THz experiment and quantum kinetic theory," Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 027401 (2005). [CrossRef]
5. C. W. Luo, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, R. Hey, and K. H. Ploog, "Phase-resolved nonlinear response of a two-dimensional electron gas under Femtosecond intersubband excitation," Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 047402 (2004). [CrossRef]
6. T. Kampfrath, L. Perfetti, F. Schapper, Ch. Frischkorn, and M. Wolf, "Strongly coupled optical phonons in the ultrafast dynamics of the electronic energy and current relaxation in graphite," Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 187403 (2005). [CrossRef]
7. G. Cerullo and S. De Silvestri, "Ultrafast optical parametric amplifiers," Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 1-18 (2003). [CrossRef]
8. A. Sugita, K. Yokoyama, H. Yamada, N. Inoue, M. Aoyama, and K. Yamakawa, "Generation of broadband mid-infrared pulses by noncollinear difference frequency mixing," Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 46, 226-228 (2007). [CrossRef]
9. R. A. Kaindl, M. Wurm, K. Reimann, P. Hamm, A. M. Weiner, M. Woerner, "Generation, shaping, and characterization of intense femtosecond pulses tunable from 3 to 20μm," J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 17, 2086-2094 (2000).
10. A. Bonvalet, M. Joffre, J.-L. Martin, and A. Migus, "Generation of ultrabroadband femtosecond pulses in the mid-infrared by optical rectification of 15 fs pulses at 100 MHz repetition rate," Appl. Phys. Lett. 67, 2907-2909 (1995). [CrossRef]
11. M. Joffre, A. Bonvalet, A. Migus, and J.-L. Martin, "Femtosecond diffracting Fourier-transform infrared interferometer," Opt. Lett. 21, 964-966 (1996).
12. R. A. Kaindl, D. C. Smith, M. Joschko, M. P. Hasselbeck, M. Woerner, and T. Elsaesser, "Femtosecond infrared pulses tunable from 9 to 18 μm at an 88-MHz repetition rate," Opt. Lett. 23, 861-863 (1998).
13. R. A. Kaindl, F. Eickemeyer, M. Woerner, and T. Elsaesser, "Broadband phase-matched difference frequency mixing of femtosecond pulses in GaSe: experiment and theory," Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 1060-1062 (1999). [CrossRef]
14. R. Huber, A. Brodschelm, F. Tauser, and A. Leitenstorfer, "Generation and field-resolved detection of femtosecond electromagnetic pulses tunable up to 41 THz," Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 3191-3193 (2000). [CrossRef]
15. T. Fuji, A. Apolonski, and F. Krausz, "Self-stabilization of carrier-envelope offset phase by use of differencefrequency generation," Opt. Lett. 29, 632-634 (2004). [CrossRef]
16. M. Zimmermann, C. Gohle, R. Holzwarth, T. Udem, and T. W. Hänsch, "Optical clockwork with an offset free difference frequency comb: accuracy of sum- and difference frequency generation," Opt. Lett. 29, 310-312 (2004). [CrossRef]
17. K. Liu, J. Xu, and X.-C. Zhang, "GaSe crystals for broadband terahertz wave detection," Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 863-865 (2004). [CrossRef]
18. C. Kübler, R. Huber, S. Tübel, and A. Leitenstorfer, "Ultrabroadband detection of multi-terahertz field transients with GaSe electro-optic sensors: approaching the near infrared," Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 3360-3362 (2004). [CrossRef]
19. M. M. Choy and R. L. Byer, "Second-order susceptibility measurements of visible and infrared nonlinear crystals," Phys. Rev. B 14, 1693-1706 (1976). [CrossRef]
20. C. P. Hauri, P. Schlup, G. Arisholm, J. Biegert, and U. Keller, "Phase-preserving chirped-pulse optical parametric amplification to 17.3 fs directly from a Ti:sapphire oscillator," Opt. Lett. 29, 1369-1371 (2004). [CrossRef]
21. T. Fuji, N. Ishii, C. Y. Teisset, X. Gu, Th. Metzger, A. Baltuska, N. Forget, D. Kaplan, A. Galvanauskas, and F. Krausz, "Parametric amplification of few-cycle carrier-envelope phase-stable pulses at 2.1 μm," Opt. Lett. 31, 1103-1105 (2006). [CrossRef]
22. C. Manzoni, C. Vozzi, E. Benedetti, G. Sansone, S. Stagira, O. Svelto, S. De Silvestri, M. Nisoli, and G. Cerullo, "Generation of high-energy self-phase stabilized pulses by difference frequency generation followed by optical parametric amplification," Opt. Lett. 31, 963-965 (2006). [CrossRef]
23. S. Sartania, Z. Cheng, M. Lenzner, G. Tempea, Ch. Spielmann, F. Krausz, and K. Ferencz, "Generation of 0.1-TW 5-fs optical pulses at a 1-kHz repetition rate," Opt. Lett. 22, 1562-1564 (1997).
24. T. Pfeifer, L. Gallman, M. Abel, P. Nagel, D. Neumark, and S. R. Leone, "Heterodyne mixing of laser fields for temporal gating of High-Harmonic Generation," Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 163901 (2006). [CrossRef]

Author Affiliations

Thomas Zentgraf, Rupert Huber, Nils C. Nielsen, Daniel S. Chemla, Robert A. Kaindl

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Cited By

OSA is able to provide readers links to articles that cite this paper by participating in CrossRef's Cited-By Linking service. In addition to listing OSA journal articles that cite this paper, citing articles from other participating publishers will also be listed.

Advanced Search

• Sep 01 2010 : The new issue of Biomedical Optics Express is now available!
• Aug 04 2010 : The 2010 Conferences for Integrated Photonics Research, Silicon and Nanophotonics and Photonics in Switching are now available.
• Aug 02 2010 : The inaugural issue of Biomedical Optics Express is now available!

More News

• New Imaging Technique Could Help Physicians Ease the Aftermath of Breast Cancer
  Aug 3, 2010 - A new study of breast cancer survivors may help physicians ease a... more
• OSA Launches New Journal, Biomedical Optics Express
  Aug 3, 2010 - The Optical Society (OSA) announced today the launch and publication... more
• New 3-D Imaging Techniques for Improved Lung Cancer Drug Development
  Jul 7, 2010 - Advanced imaging technologies that promise to improve the ... more