Ytterbium-laser-driven THz generation in thin lithium niobate at 1.9 kW average power in a passive enhancement cavity

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first high-power THz generation via optical rectification in a passive enhancement cavity driven by a 1.9 kW ytterbium laser, achieving milliwatt-level THz pulses at high repetition rate.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of using a passive enhancement cavity to boost power for efficient THz generation with ytterbium lasers, reaching unprecedented average power levels.

Findings

Achieved 1.9 kW average power in THz generation

Generated milliwatt-level THz pulses with 2-THz bandwidth

Demonstrated the highest driving average power for optical rectification

Abstract

Single-cycle, high-power, high-repetition-rate THz pulse sources are becoming the cornerstone of several scientific and industrial applications. A promising and versatile method for high-power THz generation is optical rectification in nonlinear crystals pumped by powerful near-infrared ultrafast laser systems. In this context, ytterbium-based laser sources are particularly advantageous in terms of power scalability and technology establishment. However, as the repetition rate increases toward hundreds of MHz, the conversion efficiency typically decreases, as most laser systems do not reach sufficiently high average power to correspondingly enhance the peak power to drive the nonlinear conversion process efficiently. An alternative approach to achieving sufficiently high average power at high repetition rate is based on passive enhancement cavities, which boost the pulse energy of standard watt-level ytterbium lasers by orders of magnitude. We present the first demonstration of optical rectification in a passive enhancement cavity at multi-kW levels, achieved by a 240-fold power enhancement. By irradiating a 50-$\mu$m thin lithium niobate plate with 1.9-kW average power inside the enhancement cavity, we generate milliwatt-level THz pulses with 2-THz bandwidth and 93-MHz repetition rate, mostly limited by the driving pulse duration. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the highest driving average power used for OR. This methodology represents a promising new step towards high-repetition-rate and high average power single-cycle THz sources using widely available multi-watt level Yb lasers.