Optical thin film coated organic nonlinear crystal for efficient terahertz wave generation

In the process of terahertz (THz) wave generation via optical rectification of infrared femtosecond pulses in a non-linear optical crystal, the power of terahertz wave is directly proportional to the square of the optical pump power. Therefore, high power terahertz wave can be generated using a high power femtosecond laser provided that the crystal has both high laser induced damage threshold and optical non-linear coefficient. However, a significant amount of pump power is lost in this process due to the Fresnel’s reflection at the air-crystal boundary. In this paper, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate that the coat of optical thin film called Cytop on the 4-N, N-dimethylamino-4’-N’-methyl-stilbazolium tosylate (DAST) crystal effectively reduces the reflection loss of pump power, thereby increasing the THz wave emission efficiency of the DAST crystal. We found that the average power of THz wave emitted by the thin film coated crystal is about 28% higher than the THz power emitted by the uncoated crystal when an equal amount of laser power is used. The thin film coated DAST crystals can be used not only in terahertz measurement systems but also in optical devices such as modulators and waveguides.