Spatiotemporal shaping of terahertz radiation produced by a two-color ultrashort flying focus

Spatiotemporal shaping of terahertz radiation produced by a two-color ultrashort flying focus | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Spatiotemporal shaping of terahertz radiation produced by a two-color ultrashort flying focus Jeremy Pigeon, Hunter Markland, Robert Boni, Kyle Miller, Amanda Elliott, and 7 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8791194/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The flying focus features an intensity peak that propagates at a focal velocity that is decoupled from the group velocity of the medium. Control over the velocity of the focal point is predicted to revolutionize secondary source experiments by allowing velocity matching of physical processes at the core of nonlinear optics and high-field physics. Despite this promise, experimental demonstrations have lagged pioneering theoretical work due to the difficulty of creating an ultrashort flying focus in the laboratory. In this article, spatiotemporal shaping of a terahertz pulse generated via gas-phase photoionization by a two-color, ultrashort flying focus is described. The combination of radial group delay provided by reflective, radially-stepped echelons and spherical aberration produced by an axiparabola generate a flying focus with sub- and superluminal focal point velocities. The flying focus efficiently generates terahertz radiation that exhibits fundamentally different spatiotemporal properties based on its velocity. We present detailed measurements of the spatial and temporal properties of the terahertz radiation and measure its focal velocity. This demonstration shows the utility of terahertz generation with a flying focus and enables future experiments in nonlinear optics with spatiotemporal control. Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Optical physics/Nonlinear optics Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Optical physics/Terahertz optics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8791194","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":597895078,"identity":"77b5f583-d2d4-40b5-adef-55706573f538","order_by":0,"name":"Jeremy 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