Electro-optic generation and detection of femtosecond electrical transients.
01 January 1988
Recent work on the generation of ultrashort electrical pulses by optical rectification of femtosecond optical pulses in electro- optic materials is summarized in this paper. This technique which we call electro-optic Cherenkov radiation is described in detail with particular emphasis on the effects of dispersion due to coupling to lattice vibrational resonances. Recent experimental results in lithium tantalate are described which illustrate these effects. When the duration of the exciting femtosecond optical pulse is comparable to the period of the lattice vibrations, a pronounced ringing is observed in the electrical waveforms.