Tunable circularly polarized terahertz radiation from magnetized gas plasma

Wang, W.-M. and Gibbon, P. and Sheng, Z.-M. and Li, Y.-T. (2015) Tunable circularly polarized terahertz radiation from magnetized gas plasma. Physical Review Letters, 114 (25-26). 253901. ISSN 1079-7114 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.253901)

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Abstract

It is shown, by simulation and theory, that circularly or elliptically polarized terahertz radiation can be generated when a static magnetic (B) field is imposed on a gas target along the propagation direction of a two-color laser driver. The radiation frequency is determined by ω2p+ω2c/4−−−−−−−−√+ωc/2, where ωp is the plasma frequency and ωc is the electron cyclotron frequency. With the increase of the B field, the radiation changes from a single-cycle broadband waveform to a continuous narrow-band emission. In high-B-field cases, the radiation strength is proportional to ω2p/ωc. The B field provides a tunability in the radiation frequency, spectrum width, and field strength.