Enhanced terahertz radiation generated by intense laser interaction with a two-layer thin solid target

Abstract

A terahertz radiation enhancing scheme, in which a linearly polarized weakly relativistic laser pulse irradiates a target consisting of two parallel thin-solid layers with a certain gap, is proposed and studied by using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The radiation is known to be produced by laser-produced hot electrons via mechanisms such as coherent transition radiation at the target surfaces. Under optimized conditions, the energy conversion efficiency of terahertz radiation can be as high as 3.3%, which is nearly 1.5 times higher than that obtained with a single-layer target with the same drive laser. This is mainly due to the enhanced hot electron generation with moderate energy via multiple reflections of the laser pulse between the two target layers. The radiation has two peaks close to 30° from the target surface, which are more collimated than that with the single-layer target. The dependence of the terahertz radiation on a variety of target parameters is given, which can control the terahertz spectrum and radiation efficiency and thus provide guidance for experimental investigations. Moreover, both the coherent transition radiation and antenna radiation models are applied to explain the angular distributions of the terahertz emission found in the simulations.