Abstract

Terahertz (THz) pulse applications such as strong-field control of matter, charged particle manipulation, and acceleration require the highest possible field strengths. To achieve that, high pulse energy and excellent focusability are essential. Conventional tilted-pulse-front setups using lithium niobate (LN) prisms have provided the highest terahertz pulse energies in the low-frequency part of the THz spectrum. However, the scalability of such setups is limited by the following effects: (i) limited interaction length due to angular dispersion, (ii) imaging errors and pulse duration lengthening at the sides of a large pump beam and (iii) prism shape of the LN crystal with large (~63°) wedge angle. Our group proposed several new setups in the past few years to reduce or even eliminate these limitations. Here, we present the result from the first demonstration of the imaging-free wedged nonlinear echelon slab (wedged NLES) [1]. This setup addresses the limitations of conventional tilted-pulse-front setups by reducing (i), eliminating (ii), and dramatically reducing (iii).

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