Optimized terahertz-wave generation using BNA-DFG

An effective and widely tunable means of producing terahertz (THz) radiation using difference-frequency generation (DFG) in an organic N-benzyl-2-methyl-4-nitroaniline (BNA) crystal was demonstrated by optimizing the pump wavelengths. We calculated the (wideband) refractive index and coherence length mapping of BNA to establish the optimum phase-matching condition of the DFG configuration. To satisfy the phase-matching conditions over the range 0.1-20 THz, both pump wavelengths were varied from 780 to 950 nm, and the optical wavelength dependency of the THz-wave output was clearly observed. We expanded the range of THz-wave generation and increased the power output to ten times that obtained using previous methods. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America