Terahertz emission from laser-driven gas plasmas: A plasmonic point of view
Journal article, 2018
We disclose an unanticipated link between plasmonics and nonlinear frequency down-conversion in laser-induced gas-plasmas. For two-color femtosecond pump pulses, a plasmonic resonance is shown to broaden the terahertz emission spectra significantly. We identify the resonance as a leaky mode, which contributes to the emission spectra whenever electrons are excited along a direction where the plasma size is smaller than the plasma wavelength. As a direct consequence, such resonances can be controlled by changing the polarization properties of elliptically shaped driving laser pulses. Both experimental results and 3D Maxwell consistent simulations confirm that a significant terahertz pulse shortening and spectral broadening can be achieved by exploiting the transverse driving laser beam shape as an additional degree of freedom.
Author
Illia Thiele
University of Bordeaux
Chalmers, Physics, Subatomic and Plasma Physics
B. Zhou
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Alisée Nguyen
CEA Dam Ile-de France
E. Smetanina
University of Gothenburg
R. Nuter
University of Bordeaux
K. J. Kaltenecker
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Pedro González De Alaiza Martínez
University of Bordeaux
J. Dechard
CEA Dam Ile-de France
Luc Bergé
CEA Dam Ile-de France
P. U. Jepsen
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Stefan Skupin
University of Bordeaux
Université de Lyon
Optica
2334-2536 (ISSN)
Vol. 5 12 1617-1622Subject Categories
Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
Other Physics Topics
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
DOI
10.1364/OPTICA.5.001617