Generation of high-field narrowband terahertz radiation by counterpropagating plasma wakes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that counterpropagating plasma wakefields can efficiently produce high-power, narrowband terahertz radiation at the second harmonic of the plasma frequency, with potential applications in high-field terahertz pulse generation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism using counterpropagating plasma wakes to generate high-field narrowband terahertz radiation, supported by analytical theory and particle-in-cell simulations.

Findings

Efficient generation of high-power terahertz pulses at the second harmonic of plasma frequency.

Potential to produce gigawatt-level, millijoule energy terahertz pulses.

Analytical and simulation results confirm the feasibility of the method.

Abstract

It is found that nonlinear interaction of plasma wakefields driven by counterpropagating laser or particle beams can efficiently generate high-power electromagnetic radiation at the second harmonic of the plasma frequency. Using a simple analytical theory and particle-in-cell simulations, we show that this phenomenon can be attractive for producing high-field ($\sim 10$ MV/cm) narrowband terahertz pulses with the gigawatt power level and millijoule energy content.