Li yutong, L05 group, key laboratory of optical physics, institute of physics, Chinese academy of sciences/national research center for condensed matter physics, Beijing, and a research team composed of zhang jie, academician, Shanghai jiaotong university, liao guoqian and others, explored a new way of terahertz radiation generated by intense lasaer pointer-solid target interaction. Based on the previous work of using high-energy electrons accelerated by lasers to excite terahertz transit radiation, a joint experiment conducted with professor David Neely and others at rutherford laboratory in the UK recently significantly increased the terahertz pulse energy, setting a new world record.
It is known that terahertz radiation is located in the middle of infrared and microwave radiation, because of its single photon energy low and spectrum “fingerprint” and other unique advantages, in the field of materials science, biological medicine and national defense and security has important applications.
However, the lack of high energy terahertz radiation sources is one of the key bottlenecks limiting the development of terahertz science and applications. Terahertz radiation can be obtained by a variety of electronic and optical methods.
The experiment was conducted in the Vulcan laser device of rutherford laboratory, and the experiment plan was put forward by the Chinese side. Using ultra-powerful picosecond lasers, they first accelerated a large number of high-energy electrons in a solid thin-film target. Experiments show that the terahertz pulse energy is up to 50 mJ, which is the highest terahertz energy obtained in the laboratory.