Development of a wavefront sensor for terahertz pulses

Opt Express. 2016 Mar 7;24(5):5203-5211. doi: 10.1364/OE.24.005203.

Abstract

Wavefront characterization of terahertz pulses is essential to optimize far-field intensity distribution of time-domain (imaging) spectrometers or increase the peak power of intense terahertz sources. In this paper, we report on the wavefront measurement of terahertz pulses using a Hartmann sensor associated with a 2D electro-optic imaging system composed of a ZnTe crystal and a CMOS camera. We quantitatively determined the deformations of planar and converging spherical wavefronts using the modal Zernike reconstruction least-squares method. Associated with deformable mirrors, the sensor will also open the route to terahertz adaptive optics.