0.35% THz pulse conversion efficiency achieved by Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser filamentation in argon at 1 kHz repetition rate

Abstract

In this study, an optical setup for generating terahertz (THz) pulses through a two-color femtosecond laser filament was carefully designed to achieve a precise overlap of two-color laser pulses in space and time. β-barium borate (BBO), α-BBO, and a dual-wavelength plate were used to compensate the phase delay of the two-color lasers. Tilting of α-BBO could further realize the precise spatial overlap of the two beams by counteracting the walk-off effect. The maximum output THz pulse energy reached 21 μJ in argon gas when using a commercial Ti:sapphire laser with a pulse energy of 6 mJ at a 1 kHz repetition rate. The corresponding conversion efficiency exceeded 0.35%.

Keywords

• femtosecond laser filaments
• walk-off effect
• conversion efficiency