Simple THz phase retarder based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer for polarization control

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ueda, Hiroki, Pashkin, Alexej, Uykur, Ece, Helm, Manfred, Winnerl, Stephan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914014714396672
author Ueda, Hiroki
Pashkin, Alexej
Uykur, Ece
Helm, Manfred
Winnerl, Stephan
author_facet Ueda, Hiroki
Pashkin, Alexej
Uykur, Ece
Helm, Manfred
Winnerl, Stephan
contents On-demand polarization control of electromagnetic waves is the fundamental element of modern optics. Its interest has recently been expanded in the terahertz (THz) range for coherent excitation of collective quasiparticles in matters, triggering a wide variety of non-trivial intriguing physics, e.g., anharmonicity, nonlinear coupling, and metastability. Wavelength tunability in THz polarization control is fundamentally important for the resonant excitation of collective modes. Here, we propose and demonstrate a simple and convenient THz phase retarder based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer to obtain circular polarization. The efficiency of THz polarization conversion is demonstrated by the achieved high polarization degree of more than 99.9% and a large transmission of ~76%. The simple and compact setup allows us to adapt the phase retarder to existing setups readily and will contribute to further exploration of ultrafast science, e.g., chiral phononics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_03721
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Simple THz phase retarder based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer for polarization control
Ueda, Hiroki
Pashkin, Alexej
Uykur, Ece
Helm, Manfred
Winnerl, Stephan
Optics
On-demand polarization control of electromagnetic waves is the fundamental element of modern optics. Its interest has recently been expanded in the terahertz (THz) range for coherent excitation of collective quasiparticles in matters, triggering a wide variety of non-trivial intriguing physics, e.g., anharmonicity, nonlinear coupling, and metastability. Wavelength tunability in THz polarization control is fundamentally important for the resonant excitation of collective modes. Here, we propose and demonstrate a simple and convenient THz phase retarder based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer to obtain circular polarization. The efficiency of THz polarization conversion is demonstrated by the achieved high polarization degree of more than 99.9% and a large transmission of ~76%. The simple and compact setup allows us to adapt the phase retarder to existing setups readily and will contribute to further exploration of ultrafast science, e.g., chiral phononics.
title Simple THz phase retarder based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer for polarization control
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.03721