Light-guiding-light-based temporal integration of broadband terahertz pulses in air

Abstract

The next generation of all-optical computation platforms prefers the light-guiding-light (LGL) scheme inside a medium that envisions circuitry-free and rapidly reconfigurable systems powered by dynamic interactions between light beams. Currently, suitable LGL materials and corresponding mechanisms are in urgent need. In this work, we proposed ubiquitous air as a restorable LGL signal manipulation medium with transient air-plasma waveguide circuits. Briefly, by focusing femtosecond laser beams in free space, the created atmospheric plasma filament array via photoionization was able to guide terahertz (THz) pulses along its epsilon-near-zero zone with a 1/f-profile spectral response. Consequently, this achieved a time-domain integration of the THz pulse in broad bandwidth. When the pumping laser was sequentially turned off and on, this air-plasma multi-filament structure was erased and rebuilt within nano- and femto-seconds, respectively, allowing rapid and repeated rearrangements of the all-optical stage. Furthermore, this air-based LGL information processing approach is promising to pave the way toward all-optical calculations during free-space directional transmission of THz waves, in which way the delivered THz signal can be remotely controlled.