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Letters to Nature

Nature 420, 153-156 (14 November 2002) | doi:10.1038/nature01175; Received 12 March 2002; Accepted 30 September 2002

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High-power terahertz radiation from relativistic electrons

G. L. Carr1, Michael C. Martin2, Wayne R. McKinney2, K. Jordan3, George R. Neil3 & G. P. Williams3

  1. National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
  2. Advanced Light Source Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  3. Free Electron Laser Facility, Jefferson Laboratory, 12000 Jefferson Avenue, Newport News, Virginia 23606, USA

Correspondence to: G. P. Williams3 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to G.P.W. (e-mail: Email: gwyn@mailaps.org).

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Terahertz (THz) radiation, which lies in the far-infrared region, is at the interface of electronics and photonics. Narrow-band THz radiation can be produced by free-electron lasers1 and fast diodes2, 3. Broadband THz radiation can be produced by thermal sources and, more recently, by table-top laser-driven sources4, 5, 6 and by short electron bunches in accelerators7, but so far only with low power. Here we report calculations and measurements that confirm the production of high-power broadband THz radiation from subpicosecond electron bunches in an accelerator. The average power is nearly 20 watts, several orders of magnitude higher than any existing source, which could enable various new applications. In particular, many materials have distinct absorptive and dispersive properties in this spectral range, so that THz imaging could reveal interesting features. For example, it would be possible to image the distribution of specific proteins or water in tissue, or buried metal layers in semiconductors8, 9; the present source would allow full-field, real-time capture of such images. High peak and average power THz sources are also critical in driving new nonlinear phenomena and for pump–probe studies of dynamical properties of materials10, 11.

  1. National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
  2. Advanced Light Source Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  3. Free Electron Laser Facility, Jefferson Laboratory, 12000 Jefferson Avenue, Newport News, Virginia 23606, USA

Correspondence to: G. P. Williams3 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to G.P.W. (e-mail: Email: gwyn@mailaps.org).