L’équipe QUAD du Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques à montré la possibilité de transférer la phase et l’amplitude d’une onde terahertz sur un faisceau laser compatible télécom.
Cette avancée ouvre de nouvelles possibilités dans le domaine du traitement optique des ondes terahertz.
Les résultats seront publiés dans la revue Nature Photonics au mois de juillet 2007.
Résumé en anglais de l’article à paraître dans Nature Photonics :
In a GaAs crystal, due to the anomalous dispersion introduced by optical phonon absorption, a phase-matched interaction is possible
between a near-infrared beam and a terahertz (THz) wave. We exploit this nonlinear optical process to allow the merging of THz
quantum cascade (QC) laser and telecom technologies by injecting a telecom beam into a suitably designed THz QC laser.
Within the optical cavity, the phase and amplitude of the THz wave are recorded onto the near-infrared (NIR) beam, which can
be transported through an optical fibre. We show that the process is phase-matched and can be tuned over the entire telecom
range by waveguide engineering. This nonlinear upconversion technique opens up new possibilities in the optical treatment of
THz, by taking advantage of the highly developed telecom technology.