Simultaneous generation of nonlinear optical harmonics and terahertz radiation in air: polarization discrimination of various nonlinear contributions

Abstract

In this paper, we experimentally observed generation of the second and the third optical harmonics and the broadband terahertz radiation in the course of 800 nm 120 fs pulse in atmospheric air. The analysis of their polarization properties revealed unity of their nonlinear optical nature. Taking into account only the third-order nonlinear response of the neutral molecules of air, we analytically described the newly generated elliptically polarized 3d harmonic, the linear polarization of terahertz radiation and the stability of terahertz energy yield for the initial circularly polarized ω pump pulse.

Keywords

terahertz / polarization / harmonics / nonlinearity

References

[1] Shen Y R. Principles of Nonlinear Optics. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1984, 575

[2] Wynne J, Sorokin P. Optical mixing in atomic vapors. In: Shen Y R, ed. Nonlinear Infrared Generation. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 1977, 159–214

[3] Fedotov A, Koroteev N, Zheltikov A. Phase-matching effects in the generation of third and fifth harmonics of Nd:YAG-laser radiation in a low-temperature laser-produced plasma. Laser Physics, 1995, 5(4): 835–840

[4] Cook D J, Hochstrasser R M. Intense terahertz pulses by four-wave rectification in air. Optics Letters, 2000, 25(16): 1210–1212

[5] Houard A, Liu Y, Prade B, Mysyrowicz A. Polarization analysis of terahertz radiation generated by four-wave mixing in air. Optics Letters, 2008, 33(11): 1195–1197

[6] Vvedenskii N V, Korytin A I, Kostin V A, Murzanev A A, Silaev A A, Stepanov A N. Two-color laser-plasma generation of terahertz radiation using a frequency-tunable half harmonic of a femtosecond pulse. Physical Review Letters, 2014, 112(5): 055004–055007

[7] Borodin A V, Panov N A, Kosareva O G, Andreeva V A, Esaulkov M N, Makarov V A, Shkurinov A P, Chin S L, Zhang X C. Transformation of terahertz spectra emitted from dual-frequency femtosecond pulse interaction in gases. Optics Letters, 2013, 38(11): 1906–1908

[8] Kim K Y, Glownia J H, Taylor A J, Rodriguez G. Terahertz emission from ultrafast ionizing air in symmetry-broken laser fields. Optics Express, 2007, 15(8): 4577–4584

[9] Théberge F, Châteauneuf M, Roy G, Mathieu P, Dubois J. Generation of tunable and broadband far-infrared laser pulses during two-color filamentation. Physical Review, 2010, 81(3): 033821

[10] Dai J, Karpowicz N, Zhang X C. Coherent polarization control of terahertz waves generated from two-color laser-induced gas plasma. Physical Review Letters, 2009, 103(2): 023001

[11] Kosareva O, Panov N, Makarov V, Perezhogin I, Marceau C, Chen Y, Yuan S, Wang T, Zeng H, Savel'ev A, Chin S L. Polarization rotation due to femtosecond filamentation in an atomic gas. Optics Letters, 2010, 35: 2904–2906

[12] Morgen M, Price W, Hunziker L, Ludowise P, Blackwell M, Chen Y. Femtosecond Raman-induced polarization spectroscopy studies of rotational coherence in O₂, N₂ and CO₂. Chemical Physics Letters, 1993, 209(1–2): 1–9

[13] Gryaznov G A, Makarov V A, Perezhogin I A, Potravkin N N. Modeling of nonlinear optical activity in propagation of ultrashort elliptically polarized laser pulses. Physical Review E: Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 2014, 89(1): 013306–013316

[14] Panov N, Kosareva O, Savel'ev-Trofimov A, Uryupina D, Perezhogin I, Makarov V. Filamentation of femtosecond Gaussian pulses with close-to-linear or -circular elliptical polarization. Quantum Electronics, 2011, 41(2): 160–162

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support from the Russian Fund for Basic Research (Grant Nos.  NN 12-02-01368 and 12-02-33029), the Council of RF President for Support of  Young Scientists (No. 4895.2014.2), RF President Grant for Leading Scientific  Schools (No. NSh-3796.2014.2), Olga Kosareva and Nikolay Panov thank Dynasty  Foundation.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg