Xiao-Yu Peng

Ultrathin multi-band planar metamaterial absorber based on standing wave resonances

We present a planar waveguide model and a mechanism based on standing wave resonances to interpret the unity absorptions of ultrathin planar metamaterial absorbers. The analytical model predicts that the available absorption peaks of the absorber are corresponding to the fundamental mode and only its odd harmonic modes of the standing wave. The model is in good agreement with numerical simulation and can explain the main features observed in typical ultrathin planar metamaterial absorbers. Based on this model, ultrathin planar metamaterial absorbers with multi-band absorptions at desired frequencies can be easily designed.

Strong terahertz radiation from relativistic laser interaction with solid density plasmas

We report a plasma-based strong THz source generated in intense laser-solid interactions at relativistic intensities > 10(18) W/cm(2). Energies up to 50 mu J/sr per THz pulse is observed when the laser pulses are incident onto a copper foil at 67.5 degrees. The temporal properties of the THz radiation are measured by a single shot, electro-optic sampling method with a chirped laser pulse. The THz radiation is attributed to the self-organized transient fast electron currents formed along the target surface. Such a source allows potential applications in THz nonlinear physics and provides a diagnostic of transient currents generated in intense laser-solid interactions

Strong terahertz radiation from air plasmas generated by an aperture-limited Gaussian pump laser beam

Terahertz radiation generated by focusing the fundamental laser pulse and its second harmonic into ambient air strongly saturates with increasing pump laser energy. We demonstrate a simple method to control the Gaussian pump laser beam to improve the output of terahertz radiation with an adjustable aperture. With the optimal aperture-limited pump laser beams, the terahertz wave amplitudes can be enhanced by more than eight times depending on the pump laser parameters than those of aperture-free cases.

Optimal chirped probe pulse length for terahertz pulse measurement

A detailed analysis of the relationship between the duration of the chirped probe pulse and the bipolar terahertz (THz) pulse length in the spectral encoding technique is carried out. We prove that there is an optimal chirped probe pulse length (or an optimal chirp rate of the chirped probe pulse) matched to the input THz pulse length and derive a rigorous relationship between them. We find that only under this restricted condition the THz signal can be correctly retrieved.

Active near infrared linear polarizer based on VO2 phase transition

We demonstrate via the numerical simulation the modulation of the transmission of visible and near-infrared light through a hybrid grating structure containing a gold metallic wire-grid grating patterned on a thermochromic vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin film. We find that the transmission through the subwavelength slits of this hybrid device is significantly modulated in the near-infrared region due to the phase transition of VO2 film from insulator to metal when the temperature increases from 30 °C to 85 °C. By optimizing the hybrid-grating architecture parameters, the best switching efficiency of our hybrid grating at 1.5 μm reaches to 40%, and extinction ratio is larger than 1013. The capability of switching on/off and fine tuning of the thick hybrid grating parameters make our hybrid-grating structure a promising candidate of an active broadband linear polarizer with high switching efficiency and extinction ratio.

Energetic electrons and protons generated from the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with microdroplet plasmas

Generation of fast electrons and protons from ultrashort laser interactions with microdroplet plasmas has been simulated by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. At weakly relativistic laser intensities, two jets of hot electrons are found to emit symmetrically in the backward direction when there is preplasma formed around the droplet surface. These electron jets are associated with resonance absorption around the target surface with a spherical geometry. At relativistic laser intensities, electron bunches generated by the laser ponderomotive force separated by a laser period are superimposed to the resonant hot-electron jets. Relevant with the hot-electron emission, energetic protons can be separated into two groups: one with higher energies mainly emits in certain angles within the laser polarization plane and another with lower energies emits nearly isotropically in all directions. The protons in the first group are accelerated by the electrostatic fields induced by the hot-electron jets due t...

Distortion of the intense terahertz signal measured by spectral-encoding technique

We demonstrate that a distortion of the terahertz signal measured by spectral-encoding technique occurs when the original signal is too intense. We found that the stronger the original signal is, the more severe the distortion of the retrieved signal will be. Our simulation reproduces this phenomenon and suggests that this distortion, which affects the application of the single-shot terahertz detection technique, comes from the neglect of the quadratic term of the modulation depth which reflects the strength of the terahertz signal in the retrieving process. A possible simple method is proposed to eliminate this distortion.

Distortion analysis of pulsed terahertz signal measured with spectral-encoding technique

The principle of the spectral-encoding technique, one of the single-shot techniques for measurement of arbitrary pulsed terahertz (THz) signals, or T-rays, is demonstrated theoretically and through simulation. For single-cycle input THz pulse (bipolar wave form), THz signal could be retrieved faithfully under certain conditions, while for the multicycle input case, the THz signal cannot be retrieved without any distortion. However, there is an optimal length of the chirped-probe-pulse, corresponding to the characteristic time of the multicycle THz field, to minimize the distortion in the retrieved THz signal. Three main possible sources of distortions from both bipolar and multicycle THz signals are analyzed systematically. The first distortion originates from the mismatch of the optimal duration Tco of the chirped-probe-pulse and the T-ray length T. The second one is relevant to the spectrum bandwidth of the probe pulse. The third one occurs when the modulation depth k⪡1 is not satisfied. It comes from t...

Oval-like hollow intensity distribution of tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses in air.

The propagation of a tightly focused femtosecond laser pulse in air has been investigated. Unlike long-distance self-guided propagation of short laser pulses, a novel oval-like hollow distribution of the laser intensity is observed in the experiments and reproduced by the numerical simulations. The formation of the hollow structures can be explained by the interplay between ionization-induced refraction and Kerr self-focusing.

A high extinction ratio THz polarizer fabricated by double-bilayer wire grid structure

We designed a new style of broadband terahertz (THz) polarizer with double-bilayer wire grid structure by fabricating them on both sides of silicon substrate. This THz polarizer shows a high average extinction ratio of 60dB in 0.5 to 2.0 THz frequency range and the maximum of 87 dB at 1.06 THz, which is much higher than that of conventional monolayer wire grid polarizers and single-bilayer wire grid ones.