The spatiotemporal and spectral characteristics of ultrawide-band terahertz pulses after passing through a Fresnel lens are studied by using the scalar diffraction theory. The simulation shows that the transmitted terahertz waveforms compress with increasing propagation distance, and the multi-frequency focusing phenomenon at different focal points is observed. Additionally, the distribution of terahertz fields in a plane perpendicular to the axis is also discussed, and it is found that the diffraction not only induces focusing on-axis but also inhibits focusing at off-axis positions. Therefore, the Fresnel lens may be a useful alternative approach to being a terahertz filter. Moreover, the terahertz pulses travelling as a basic mode of a Gaussian beam are discussed in detail.
Femtosecond pump-terahertz probe studies of carrier dynamics in semi-insulating CaAs have been investigated in detail for various pump powers. It is observed that, at high pump powers, the reflection peaks flip to the opposite polarity and dramatically enhance as the pump arrival time approaches the reflected wave of the terahertz pulse. The abnormal polarity-flip and enhancement can be interpreted by the pump-induced enhancement in the photoconductivity of GaAs and half-wave loss. Moreover, the carrier relaxation processes and surface states filling in GaAs are also studied in these measurements.
The ultrafast optical modulation properties of split ring resonators are characterized by utilizing optical pump-terahertz probe spectroscopy.The experimental results show that when the terahertz electric vector is perpendicular to the gap of the split ring resonator,resonant absorption can be quenched significantly under high pump excitation.However,when the terahertz electric vector is parallel to the gap,the resonant absorption is less sensitive to pump excitation due to the structural properties of the metamaterial.Our numerical simulations also demonstrate that the pump pulse significantly influences the split ring resonator current by generating carriers in the substrate.
Silver nanocluster embedded ZnO composite thin film was observed to have an angle-sensitive and fast photovoltaic effect in the angle range from -90° to 90° , its peak value and the polarity varied regularly with the angle of incidence of the 1.064-μm pulsed Nd：YAG laser radiation onto the ZnO surface. Meanwhile, for each photovoltaic signal, its rising time reached -2 ns with an open-circuit photovoltage of -2 ns full width at half-maximum. This angle-sensitive fast photovoltaic effect is expected to put this composite film a candidate for angle-sensitive and fast photodetector.
The optical properties of four kinds of lubricating greases （urea, lithium, extreme pressure lithium, molybdenum disulfide lithium greases） with different NLGL （National Lubricant Grease Institute of America） numbers were investigated using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Greases with different NLGL grades have unique spectral features in the terahertz range. Comparison of the experimental data with predictions based on Lorentz Lorenz theory exhibited that the refractive indices of each kind of lubricating grease were dependent on the their consistency. In addition, molybdenum disullfide （MoS2） aa a libricant additive shows strong absorption from 0.2 to 1.4 THz, leading to higher absorption of MoS2-1ithium grease than that of lithium grease.
Three time-resolved terahertz （THz） spectroscopy methods （optical-pump/THz-probe spectroscopy,THzpump/THz-probe spectroscopy,and THz-pump/optical-probe spectroscopy） are reviewed.These are used to characterize ultrafast dynamics in photo-or THz-excited semiconductors,superconductors,nanomaterials,and other materials.In particular,the optical-pump/THz-probe spectroscopy is utilized to investigate carrier dynamics and the related intervalley scattering phenomena in semiconductors.The recent development of intense pulsed THz sources is expected to affect the research in nonlinear THz responses of various materials.
