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Tunable terahertz gas laser based on a germanium spectrum splitter

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Abstract

A tunable terahertz gas laser is demonstrated with a germanium ealton served as the spectrum splitter. The germanium ealton is 1.2-mm thick and anti-reflection coated at 10.17 μm, giving good dichroic performance for infrared and far-infrared radiation. By tuning the incident angle of the germanium ealton, the transmittance of 95% at 9– 11 μm wavelengths and the reflectance of more than 70% at 180 – 500 μm wavelengths can be achieved simultaneously. Based on the germanium ealton, a tunable CH3F gas laser is presented when pumped by a transversely excited atmospheric CO2 laser. By tuning the pump lines and the incident angles, four THz laser wavelengths are obtained including 181 μm, 261 μm, 360 μm and 496 μm. The energy conversion efficiency is in the order of 10–3, which is comparable to those of typical efficient CH3F molecule lasers. The germanium ealton is anticipated to be an efficient dichroic element for terahertz gas lasers with different wavelengths.

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Acknowledgements

Instrument support from Harbin Institute of Technology is acknowledged.

Funding

Foundation of the Education Department of Jilin Province, China (Grant No. JJKH20190565KJ) and Scientific Innovation Foundation of Changchun University of Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Optoelectric Measurement and Optical Information Transmission Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Opto-Electronic Engineering, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, 130022, China

    Chuang Liu, Li Zheng, Jiatian Wang, Lijuan Li & Tao Liu

  2. Macro Net Communication Company Limited, Chongqing, 401120, China

    Mengnan Li

Authors
  1. Chuang Liu
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  2. Li Zheng
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  3. Jiatian Wang
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  4. Mengnan Li
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  5. Lijuan Li
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  6. Tao Liu
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Correspondence to Chuang Liu.

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Liu, C., Zheng, L., Wang, J. et al. Tunable terahertz gas laser based on a germanium spectrum splitter. Appl. Phys. B 126, 133 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-020-07486-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-020-07486-5

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