Hah, J. and Jiang, W. and He, Z-H. and Nees, J. A. and Hou, B. and Thomas, A. G. R. and Krushelnick, K. (2017) Enhancement of THz generation by feedback-optimized wavefront manipulation. Optics Express, 25 (15). pp. 17271-17279. ISSN 1094-4087
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Abstract
We apply active feedback optimization methods to pyroelectric measurements of a THz signal generated by four wave mixing in air using 1 mJ to 12 mJ, 35 fs laser pulses operating at 1/2 kHz repetition rate. A genetic algorithm, using the THz signal as a figure of merit, determines the voltage settings to a deformable mirror and results in up to a 6 fold improvement in the THz signal compared with settings optimized for the best focus. It is possible to optimize for different THz generation processes using this technique. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America