Steering laser-produced THz radiation in air with superluminal ionization fronts

Abstract

We demonstrate that pulsed THz radiation produced in air by a focused ultrashort laser pulse can be steered to large angles or even in the backward direction with respect to the laser propagation axis. The emission angle is adjusted by the flying focus technique, which determines the speed and direction of the ionization front created by the single-color laser pulse. This easily adjustable THz source, being well separated from the intense laser, opens exciting applications for remote THz spectroscopy.

arXiv comment8 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Photon Acceleration in a Flying Focus
• Ionization waves of arbitrary velocity driven by a flying focus
• THz generation by optical Cherenkov emission from ionizing two-color laser pulses
• Use of spatiotemporal couplings and an axiparabola to control axial energy deposition velocity
• Spatiotemporal pulse characterization with far-field beamlet cross-correlation

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Laser-driven few-cycle Terahertz sources with high average power
• Flying focus with arbitrary directionality for spatiotemporal control of laser pulses