Efficient coupling of propagating broadband terahertz radial beams to metal wires

Bare metal wires have recently been demonstrated as waveguides for transporting terahertz (THz) radiation, where the guiding mode is radially polarized surface Sommerfeld waves. In this study, we demonstrate high-efficiency coupling of a broadband radially polarized THz pulsed beam, which is generated with a polarization-controlled beam by a segmented half-wave-plate mode converter, to bare copper wires. A total coupling efficiency up to 16.8% is observed, and at 0.3 THz, the maximum coupling efficiency is 66.3%. The results of mode-overlap calculation and numerical simulation support the experimental data well. (c) 2013 Optical Society of America