Tunable pump compression and fast modulation for pulsed THz generation

Abstract

We demonstrate tunable dispersion compensation of femtosecond pulses at telecom wavelengths for broadband Terahertz generation in 7.5-meter fiber link using a Silicon prism pair. The prism pair enhances the amplitude of the THz E-field in InGaAs photoconductive antenna by up-to factor 5. As part of the fiber system, we employ a Mach-Zehnder modulator for pump intensity modulation at MHz frequencies and determine the dynamic range in electro-optic sampling. The performance is compared to direct modulation of the InGaAs antenna at the same frequencies. Our work establishes high compatibility between fiber and broadband THz systems.