An electro-optic (EO) dendrimer exhibits a higher χ(2) value that is suitable for femto-second laser pulse conversion for terahertz generation at room temperature. The pump-terahertz conversion via EO rectification offers an inherent power scalability that is not limited by emission saturation or by heat dissipation. A higher electro-optic coefficient was achieved by corona poling a chromophore doped dendrimer film. Measured refractive index shows significant systematic difference between poled and unpoled films that allows deducing a value of r33 ∼130 pm/V at 633 nm via the Pockels effect. Terahertz waves were generated by electro-optic rectification from this dendrimer; an average terahertz power of ∼60 µW was measured at a mode-locked pump power of 260 mW. It is thought that the generated waves (T-rays) can be used for time-domain terahertz spectroscopy.

1.
Tomalia
,
D.A.
(
2004
)
Birth of a new macromolecular architecture: dendrimers as quantized building blocks for nanoscale synthetic organic chemistry
,
Aldrichimica Acta
,
37
(
#2
),
39
.
2.
Otomo
,
S.
,
Yokoyama
,
S.
,
Nakahama
,
T.
, and
Mashiko
,
S.
(
2001
)
Remarkable optical properties of dendrimers for laser applications, in Linear and nonlinear optics of organic materials
, Eds.
M.
Eich
and
M. G.
Kuzyk
,
Proceedings of SPIE
,
4461
,
180
187
.
3.
Jen
,
A.K.Y.
,
Ma
,
H.
,
Sassa
,
T.
,
Liu
,
S.
,
Suresh
,
S.
,
Dalton
,
L.R.
and
Haller
,
M.
(
2001
)
Highly efficient and thermally stable organic/polymeric electro-optic materials by dentritic approach, in Linear and nonlinear optics of organic materials
, Eds.
M.
Eich
and
M. G.
Kuzyk
,
Proceedings of SPIE
,
4461
,
172
179
.
4.
Rahman
,
A.
(
2004
)
Nanophotonic Integrated Circuit: A Platform for an ‘Optical Processor’
,
ARP white paper
, unpublished.
5.
Rahman
,
A.
(
2008
)
Dendrimer waveguide based high-efficiency terahertz source, in Terahertz Technology and Applications
, edited by
Kurt J.
Linden
,
Laurence P.
Sadwick
,
Proc. of SPIE
Vol.
6893
,
689302-1
689302-11
.
6.
Mortazavi
,
M.A.
,
Knoesen
,
A.
,
Kowel
,
S.T.
,
Higgins
,
B.G.
, and
Dienes
,
A.
(
1989
)
Second-harmonic generation and absorption studies of polymer-dye films oriented by corona-onset poling at elevated temperatures
,
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B
,
6
,
733
741
.
7.
Gadret
,
G.
,
Kajzar
,
F.
and
Raimond
,
P.
(
1991
)
Nonlinear Optical Properties of Poled Polymers, in Nonlinear Optical Properties of Organic Materials IV
,
SPIE
1560
,
226
237
.
8.
Herman
W.N.
and
Cline
,
J.A.
(
1998
)
Chielectric relaxation: chromophore dynamics in an azo-dye-doped polymer
,
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B
,
15
,
351
358
.
9.
Ricci
,
V.
,
Stegeman
,
G.I.
and
Chan
,
K.P.
(
2000
)
Poling of multilayer polymer films for modal dispersion phase matching of second-harmonic generation: effects of glass-transition temperature matching in different layers
,
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B
,
17
,
1349
1353
.
10.
Blum
,
R.
,
Sprave
,
M.
,
Sablotny
,
J.
and
Eich
,
M.
(
1998
)
High-electric-field poling of nonlinear optical polymers
,
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B
,
15
,
318
328
.
11.
Teng
C.C.
and
Man
,
H.T.
(
1990
)
Simple reflection technique for measuring the electro-optic coefficient of poled polymer
,
Appl. Phys. Lett.
,
56
(
#18
),
1734
1736
.
12.
Enami
,
Y.
,
Kawazu
,
M.
,
Jen
,
A. K-Y.
,
Meredith
,
G.
and
Peyghambarian
,
N.
(
2003
)
Polarization insensitive transition between sol-gel waveguide and electrooptic polymer and intensity modulation for all-optical networks
,
J. Lightwave Technol.
,
21
,
2053
2060
.
13.
Boudrioua
A.
and
Loulergue
,
J.C.
(
1999
)
Electro-optic characterization of (Pb, La)TiO3 thin films using prism-coupling technique
,
J. Appl. Phys.
,
85
,
1780
1783
.
14.
Shin
,
M.J.
,
Cho
,
H.R.
,
Kim
,
J.H.
,
Han
,
S.H.
and
Wu
,
J.W.
(
1997
)
Optical interferometric measurement of the electro-optic coefficient in non-linear optical polymer films
,
J. Korean Phys. Soc.
,
31
,
99
103
, (1997).
15.
Schildkraut
,
J.S.
(
1988
)
Limitations to the determination of the optical properties of a thin film by combined ellipsometric and surface plasmon resonance measurements
,
Appl. Opt.
,
27
,
3329
3333
.
16.
Boyd
,
R.W.
(
2003
)
Nonlinear Optics
, 2nd Ed.
Academic Press
,
San Diego, USA
.
17.
Chang
,
G.
,
Divin
,
C.J.
,
Liu
,
C.-H.
,
Williamson
,
S.L.
,
Galvanauskas
,
A.
and
Norris
,
T.B.
(
2006
)
Power scalable compact THz system based on an ultrafast Yb-doped fiber amplifier
,
Opt. Express
,
14
(
#17
),
7909
7913
.
18.
Gordon
,
D.F.
,
Ting
,
A.
,
Alexeev
,
I.
,
Fischer
,
R.
,
Sprangle
,
P.
,
Kapetenakos
C.A.
and
Zigler
,
A.
(
2006
)
Tunable, high peak power terahertz radiation from optical rectification of a short modulated laser pulse
,
Opt. Express
,
14
(
#15
),
6813
6822
.
19.
Carey
,
J.J.
,
Bailey
,
R.T.
,
Pugh
,
D.
,
Sherwood
,
J.N.
,
Cruickshank
,
F.R.
and
Wynne
,
K.
(
2002
)
Terahertz pulse generation in an organic crystal by optical rectification and resonant excitation of molecular charge transfer
,
Appl. Phys. Letts.
,
81
(
#23
),
4335
4337
.
20.
Mendis
,
R.
,
Sydlo
,
C.
,
Sigmund
,
J.
,
Feiginov
,
M.
,
Meissner
,
P.
and
Hartnagel
,
H.L.
(
2005
)
Coherent generation and detection of continuous terahertz waves using two photomixers driven by laser diodes
,
Intl. J. Infrared and Millimeter Waves
,
26
, No.
2
,
201
207
.
21.
Sinyukov
,
A.M.
and
Hayden
,
L.M.
(
2002
)
Generation and detection of terahertz radiation with multilayered electro-optic polymer films
,
Optic Letts.
,
27
(
#1
),
55
57
.
22.
Chen
,
Q.
,
Tani
,
M.
,
Jiang
,
Z.
and
Zhang
,
X.-C.
(
2002
)
Electro-optic transceivers for terahertz-wave applications
,
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B
,
18
, No.
6
,
823
831
.
23.
Carrig
,
T.J.
,
Rodriguez
,
G.
,
Clement
,
T.S.
,
Taylor
,
A.J.
and
Stewart
,
K.R.
(
1995
)
Scaling of terahertz radiation via optical rectification in electro-optic crystals
,
Appl. Phys. Lett.
,
66
,
121
123
.
24.
Shi
,
W.
,
Leigh
,
M.
,
Zong
,
J.
and
Jiang
,
S.
(
2007
)
Single-frequency terahertz source pumped by Q-switched fiber lasers based on difference-frequency generation in GaSe crystal
,
Opt. Lett.
32
,
949
951
.
This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.