title: Terahertz generation from laser-driven ultrafast current propagation along a wire target.
abstract: Generation of intense coherent THz radiation by obliquely incidenting an intense laser pulse on a wire target is studied using particle-in-cell simulation. The laser-accelerated fast electrons are confined and guided along the surface of the wire, which then acts like a current-carrying line antenna and under appropriate conditions can emit electromagnetic radiation in the THz regime. For a driving laser intensity ∼3×10^{18}W/cm^{2} and pulse duration ∼10 fs, a transient current above 10 KA is produced on the wire surface. The emission-cone angle of the resulting ∼0.15 mJ (∼58 GV/m peak electric field) THz radiation is ∼30^{∘}. The conversion efficiency of laser-to-THz energy is ∼0.75%. A simple analytical model that well reproduces the simulated result is presented.
authors.affiliation: College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, People's Republic of China.|IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: H B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Zhuo
authors.affiliation: College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: X H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: X Z
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China.|Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China.|SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom.|Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (MoE) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Z M
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.affiliation: College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, People's Republic of China.|Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100094, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Zhou