Ultrafast Science, Volume. 2, Issue 1, 9853053(2022)
Anti-Correlated Plasma and THz Pulse Generation during Two-Color Laser Filamentation in Air
Zhiqiang Yu1...2, Lu Sun1,2, Nan Zhang1,2, Jianxin Wang1,2, Pengfei Qi1,3, Lanjun Guo1,3, Quan Sun4,5,*, Weiwei Liu1,2,*, and Hiroaki Misawa46
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Author Affiliations
1Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China2Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Tianjin 300350, China3Tianjin Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Sensor and Sensing Network Technology, Tianjin 300350, China4Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan5Peking University Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Nantong, 226010 JiangsuChina6Center for Emergent Functional Matter Science, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Chinashow less
The THz generation efficiency and the plasma density generated by a filament in air have been found anti-correlated when pumped by two-color laser field. The plasma density near zero delay of two laser pulses has a minimum value, which is opposite to the trend of THz generation efficiency and contradicts common sense. The lower plasma density cannot be explained by the static tunneling model according to the conventional photocurrent model, but it might be attributed to the electron trapping by the excited states of nitrogen molecule. The present work also clarifies the dominant role of the drifting velocity accelerated by the two-color laser field during the THz pulse generation process. The results promote our understanding on the optimization of the THz generation efficiency by the two-color laser filamentation.