Calorimetric detection of the conical THz radiation from femtosecond laser filaments in air

Aurélien Houard (1) , Yi Liu (1) , André Mysyrowicz (1) , Bernadette Leriche (2)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale

The spectral distribution of the conical terahertz (THz) emission from a femtosecond laser filament in air is measured with a bolometric detector and a set of filters, confirming that the main part of the emission lies between 0.5 and 3 THz. The efficiency of this THz emission is compared with that obtained in air via Four Waves Mixing of femtosecond laser pulses at ω and 2 ω in the presence of a plasma.

Keywords: laser; plasma; terahertz

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]

Aurélien Houard, Yi Liu, André Mysyrowicz, Bernadette Leriche. Calorimetric detection of the conical THz radiation from femtosecond laser filaments in air. Applied Physics Letters, 2007, 91, pp.241105. ⟨10.1063/1.2821371⟩. ⟨hal-00454579⟩