Simple and distortion-free optical sampling of terahertz pulses via heterodyne detection schemes

We present and demonstrate experimentally two simple and distortion-free methods to sample terahertz pulse in zinc-blende-type crystals like ZnTe or GaP. They are based on an optical heterodyne detection scheme which makes it possible to measure the terahertz field by detecting the optical probe beam or its second harmonic. Both are compared to conventional electro-optic sampling and give results in good agreement with the latter. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America