Generation, transport, and detection of linear accelerator based femtosecond-terahertz pulses

The generation and detection of intense terahertz (THz) radiation has drawn a great attention recently. The dramatically enhanced energy and peak electric field of the coherent THz radiation can be generated by coherent superposition of radiated fields emitted by ultrafast electron bunches. The femtosecond (fs)-THz beamline construction at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) was completed in the end of 2009. The fs-THz beamline at PAL can supply ultrafast and intense fs-THz radiation from a 75 MeV linear accelerator. The radiation is expected to have frequency up to 3 THz (similar to 100 cm(-1)) and the pulse width of <200 fs with pulse energy up to 10 mu J. This intense THz source has great potential for applications in nonlinear optical phenomena and fields such as material science, biomedical science, chemistry, and physics, etc. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3529921]