Abstract
We disclose an unanticipated link between plasmonics and nonlinear frequency down-conversion in laser-induced gas-plasmas. For two-color femtosecond pump pulses, a plasmonic resonance is shown to broaden the terahertz emission spectra significantly. We identify the resonance as a leaky mode, which contributes to the emission spectra whenever electrons are excited along a direction where the plasma size is smaller than the plasma wavelength. As a direct consequence, such resonances can be controlled by changing the polarization properties of elliptically shaped driving laser pulses. Both experimental results and 3D Maxwell consistent simulations confirm that a significant terahertz pulse shortening and spectral broadening can be achieved by exploiting the transverse driving laser beam shape as an additional degree of freedom. © 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Optica |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 12 |
Pages (from-to) | 1617-1622 |
Number of pages | 6 |
ISSN | 2334-2536 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |