Terahertz pulse shaping and optimal waveform generation in poled ferroelectric crystals

We propose a terahertz pulse-shaping technique that can be accomplished by optical rectification in poled ferroelectric crystals. Simulation results show that arbitrary terahertz waveforms can be synthesized by the engineering of the domain structure of the poled crystals. The ratio of the domain length to the optical pulse length in the crystal turns out to be the crucial limiting factor to generating optimum terahertz fields and preventing waveform distortion. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.