Manipulation of polarizations for broadband terahertz waves emitted from laser plasma filaments

Zhang, Zhelin; Chen, Yanping; Cui, Sen; He, Feng; Chen, Min; Yu, Jianhua; Chen, Liming; Sheng, Zheng-Ming; Zhang, Jie

doi:10.1038/s41566-018-0238-9

Cited by 119 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…This is especially true when the non-thermal excitation of both charge and spin degrees of freedom can be utilized [2,3]. Second, the emission of electromagnetic wave induced by ultrafast currents is essential in the terahertz (THz) frequency regime, where control of the ellipticity and chirality over a broad spectral range is known to be notoriously difficult [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Specifically, previous polarization control schemes mainly rely on the sophisticated pulse shaping or two-pulse manipulation of the incident light, where the associated THz emitter itself permits no intrinsic optical chiralites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chiral terahertz wave emission from the Weyl semimetal TaAs

Gao¹,

Kaushik²,

Philip³

et al. 2020

Nat Commun

121

105

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As a fascinating topological phase of matter, Weyl semimetals host chiral fermions with distinct chiralities and spin textures. Optical excitations involving those chiral fermions can induce exotic carrier responses, and in turn lead to novel optical phenomena. Here, we discover strong coherent chiral terahertz emission from the Weyl semimetal TaAs and demonstrate unprecedented manipulation over its polarization on a femtosecond timescale. Such polarization control is achieved via the colossal ultrafast photocurrents in TaAs arising from the circular or linear photogalvanic effect. We unravel that the chiral ultrafast photocurrents are attributed to the large band velocity changes when the Weyl fermions are excited from the Weyl bands to the high-lying bands. The photocurrent generation is maximized at near-IR frequency range close to 1.5 eV. Our findings provide an entirely new design concept for creating chiral photon sources using quantum materials and open up new opportunities for developing ultrafast opto-electronics using Weyl physics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chiral terahertz wave emission from the Weyl semimetal TaAs

Gao¹,

Kaushik²,

Philip³

et al. 2020

Nat Commun

121

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[17][18][19][20][21] For example, femtosecond laser amplifier pumped air plasma, when intensively tuning the phase delay and the pump pulse polarization between two different pump pulse colors, can enable the opportunity to obtain arbitrarily shaped terahertz polarizations. 17 Furthermore, terahertz polarization pulse shaping with arbitrary field control has also been demonstrated by optical rectification of a laser pulse whose instantaneous intensity and polarization state are flexibly controlled by an optical pulse shaper. 18 Recently, elliptically and circularly polarized terahertz waves have been realized in W/CoFeB/Pt heterostructures through deliberately engineering the applied magnetic-field distribution and the cascade emission method, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generation and manipulation of chiral terahertz waves in the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Te3

et al. 2020

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Arbitrary manipulation of broadband terahertz waves with flexible polarization shaping at the source has great potential in expanding numerous applications, such as imaging, information encryption, and all-optical coherent control of terahertz nonlinear phenomena. Topological insulators featuring unique spinmomentum-locked surface state have already exhibited very promising prospects in terahertz emission, detection, and modulation, which may lay a foundation for future on-chip topological insulator-based terahertz systems. However, polarization-shaped terahertz emitters based on topological insulators with an arbitrarily manipulated temporal evolution of the amplitude and the electric-field vector direction have not yet been explored. We systematically investigated the terahertz radiation from topological insulator Bi 2 Te 3 nanofilms driven by femtosecond laser pulses and successfully realized the generation of efficient chiral terahertz waves with controllable chirality, ellipticity, and principal axis. The convenient engineering of the chiral terahertz waves was interpreted by a photogalvanic effect (PGE)-induced photocurrent, while the linearly polarized terahertz waves originated from linear PGE-induced shift currents. Our work not only provides further understanding of femtosecond coherent control of ultrafast spin currents but also describes an effective way to generate spin-polarized terahertz waves at the source.

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“…A wide part of the electromagnetic spectrum is covered in SCAPA by available photon sources, either direct from the plasma or as a secondary source, from high energy gamma rays generated via bremsstrahlung radiation 56,57 to THz radiation, 58,59 the latter being produced with energies as high as tens of millijoules via irradiation of metal foils. 60 For imaging purposes, the small plasma source size leads to excellent image resolution that may be further enhanced by coherent effects, such as in betatron radiation phase-contrast imaging.…”

Section: Application Programmesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application programmes at the Scottish Centre for the Application of Plasma-based Accelerators (SCAPA)

Wiggins

Boyd

Brunetti

et al. 2019

Relativistic Plasma Waves and Particle Beams as Coherent and Incoherent Radiation Sources III

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The Scottish Centre for the Application of Plasma-based Accelerators (SCAPA) is a research facility dedicated to providing high energy particle beams and high peak brightness radiation pulses for users across a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines. A pair of Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser systems (40 TW peak power at 10 Hz pulse repetition rate and 350 TW at 5 Hz, respectively) are the drivers for a suite of laser-plasma accelerator beamlines housed across a series of radiation shielded areas. The petawatt-scale laser delivers 45 W of average power, which has established it as a world leader in its class. The University of Strathclyde has had an operational laser wakefield accelerator since 2007 as the centrepiece of the ongoing Advanced Laser Plasma High-energy Accelerators towards X-rays (ALPHA-X) project. SCAPA, which is a multi-partner venture supported by the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, continues the dedicated beamline approach pioneered by ALPHA-X and represents a significant expansion in the UK's experimental capability at the university level in laser-driven acceleration. The new centre supports seven dedicated radiation beamlines across three shielded bunkers that each nominally specialise in different aspects of fundamental laser-plasma interaction physics and radiation sources: GeV-scale electron beams, MeV proton and ion beams, X-rays, gamma rays etc. Development of application programmes based on these sources cover a wide range of fields including nuclear physics, radiotherapy, space radiation reproduction, warm dense matter, high field physics and radioisotope generation.

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Manipulation of polarizations for broadband terahertz waves emitted from laser plasma filaments

Cited by 119 publications

References 30 publications

Chiral terahertz wave emission from the Weyl semimetal TaAs

Chiral terahertz wave emission from the Weyl semimetal TaAs

Generation and manipulation of chiral terahertz waves in the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Te3

Application programmes at the Scottish Centre for the Application of Plasma-based Accelerators (SCAPA)

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