Temporal-Spatial Manipulation of Bi-Focal Bi-Chromatic Fields for Terahertz Radiations

Mixing the fundamental (ω) and the second harmonic (2ω) waves in gas phase is a widely employed technique for emitting terahertz (THz) pulses. The THz generation driven by bi-chromatic fields can be described by the photocurrent model, where the THz generation is attributed to free electrons ionized by the ω field, and the 2ω field provides a perturbation to break the symmetry of the asymptotic momentum of free electrons. However, we find that the THz radiation is amplified by one order of magnitude when driven by bi-focal bi-chromatic fields, contradicting the common understanding of the photocurrent model. Meanwhile, present measurements demonstrate that the THz radiation mainly originates from the plasma created by the 2ω pulses instead of the ω pulses. Energy transfer from the 2ω beam to the THz beam during the THz generation has been observed, validating the major contribution of the 2ω beam. Furthermore, the THz bandwidth has been observed to extensively exceed the bandwidth of the pump pulse, not be explained by the photocurrent model as well. These counterintuitive results indicate that undiscovered physical mechanisms are involved in bi-chromatic THz generation in plasma, presenting a significant challenge for understanding strong-field nonlinear optics and simultaneously expanding various applications.