title: Terahertz generation in lithium niobate driven by Ti:sapphire laser pulses and its limitations.
abstract: We experimentally investigate the limits of 800-nm-to-terahertz (THz) energy conversion in lithium niobate at room temperature driven by amplified Ti:sapphire laser pulses with tilted pulse front. The influence of the pump central wavelength, pulse duration, and fluence on THz generation is studied. We achieved a high peak efficiency of 0.12% using transform limited 150 fs pulses and observed saturation of the optical-to-THz conversion efficiency at a fluence of 15 mJ/cm(2) for this pulse duration. We experimentally identify two main limitations for the scaling of optical-to-THz conversion efficiencies: (i) the large spectral broadening of the optical pump spectrum in combination with large angular dispersion of the tilted pulse front and (ii) free-carrier absorption of THz radiation due to multi-photon absorption of the 800 nm radiation.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carbajo
authors.forename: Koustuban
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ravi
authors.forename: Frederike
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ahr
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cirmi
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Oliver D
authors.initials: OD
authors.lastname: Mücke
authors.forename: Franz X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Kärtner