Terahertz generation and detection using femtosecond mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser

Abstract

We successfully demonstrate a THz generation using an ytterbium (Yb)-doped mode-locked femtosecond fiber laser and a home-made low-temperature grown (LTG) InGaAs Photoconductive antenna (PCA) module for THz Time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) systems. The Yb-doped fiber ring laser consists of a pump laser diode (PLD), a wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) coupler, a single-mode fiber (SMF), a 25 cm-long highly Yb-doped fiber, two collimators, two quarter wave plates (QWPs), a half-wave plate (HWP), a 10 nm broadband band pass filter, an isolator, and a polarizing beam splitter (PBS). In order to achieve the passively mode-locked optical short pulse, the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) effect is used. The achieved center wavelength and the 3 dB bandwidth of the modelocked fiber laser are 1.03 μm and ~ 15.6 nm, respectively. It has 175 fs duration after pulse compression with 66.2 MHz repetition rate. The average output power of mode-locked laser has more than 275 mW. The LTG-InGaAs PCA modules are used as the emitter and receiver in order to achieve the THz radiation. The PCA modules comprise a hyper-hemispherical Si lens and a log-spiral antenna-integrated LTG-InGaAs PCA chip electronically contacted on a printed circuit board (PCB). An excitation optical average pumping and probing power were ~ 6.3 mW and 5 mW, respectively. The free-space distance between the emitter and the receiver in the THz-TDS system was 70 mm. The spectrum of the THz radiation is achieved higher than 1.5 THz.