Single-pulse time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy of sub-millisecond time dynamics

Abstract

Slow motion movies are not only fascinating to watch, they also allow us to see intricate details of the mechanical dynamics of complex phenomena. If the images in each frame are replaced by terahertz (THz) waves, such movies can monitor low-energy resonances and reveal fast structural or chemical transitions. Here, we combine THz spectroscopy as a non-invasive optical probe with a real-time monitoring technique to resolve non-reproducible phenomena at 50k frames per second. The concept, based on dispersive Fourier transform spectroscopy to achieve unprecedented acquisition speed of THz spectroscopy data, is demonstrated by monitoring sub-millisecond dynamics of hot carriers injected in silicon by successive resonant pulses as a saturation density is established. We anticipate that our experimental configuration will play a crucial role in revealing fast irreversible physical and chemical processes at THz frequencies with microsecond resolution to enable new applications in fundamental research as well as in industry, notably as a rapid supply chain monitoring system in high-volume manufacturing.

Manuscript: 9 pages, 5 figures; Supplementary material: 6 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Observing microscopic structures of a relativistic object using a time -stretch strategy
• Direct observation of spatio-temporal dynamics of short electron bunches in storage rings
• High sensitivity photonic time-stretch electro-optic sampling of terahertz pulses

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Advanced Data Processing of THz-Time Domain Spectroscopy Data with Sinusoidally Moving Delay Lines
• Optical-pump terahertz-probe spectroscopy in high magnetic fields with kHz single-shot detection
• Performance analysis of table-top single-pulse terahertz detection up to 1.1 MHz
• Electric-field metrology of a terahertz frequency comb using Rydberg atoms
• Laser-driven few-cycle Terahertz sources with high average power
• Cost-effective time-stretch terahertz recorders using 1550 nm probes