Liquid Crystal-Based Geometric Phase-Enhanced Platform for Polarization and Wavefront Analysis Techniques with the Short-TeraHertz FEL Oscillator TerRa@BriXSinO

In this work, we propose to design a liquid crystal-based modular and extendable platform of cutting-edge optical technologies for studying materials based on the analysis of polarization and wavefront of light in the wavelength range of 10-50 mu m, which is considered to work even in the longer wavelengths range. This platform will be driven by the future THz-FEL source TerRa@BriXSinO that produces high power radiation in THz-range from 6 THz up to 30 THz (Mid-/Far-IR). The lack of optical infrastructures in this range has been tackled by fabricating liquid crystal-based geometric phase components that have been specifically designed for this purpose. This is in order to optimally exploit all the source's potential for maximum accuracy and efficiency in determining polarization- and wavefront-sensitive properties of materials. We present an overview of a few experiments for characterizing bulk inhomogeneities, dielectric anisotropy, surface roughness, cracks, impact damages, and stress and strain effects with special emphasis on non-destructive tests on composite structures. The tools for wavefront shaping developed within our platform will be exploited to add a further degree of freedom, i.e., orbital angular momentum, to nonlinear optics techniques, such as Terahertz Hyper-Raman spectroscopy, for investigating chiral agents' properties.

Automated summary

In this work, a liquid crystal-based modular and extendable platform is proposed for studying materials by analyzing polarization and wavefront of light. This platform will be driven by the future THz-FEL source TerRa@BriXSinO, which produces high power radiation in the THz-range. Liquid crystal-based geometric phase components have been fabricated to optimize the source's potential for accurately determining polarization- and wavefront-sensitive properties of materials. This platform allows characterizing various properties of materials and can add orbital angular momentum for investigating chiral agents' properties using nonlinear optics techniques.