Terahertz generation by tilted-front laser pulses in weakly and strongly nonlinear regimes

Terahertz generation by femtosecond laser pulses with tilted intensity front in room-temperature and cryogenically cooled LiNbO3 crystals was investigated. The role of the interaction length and pump pulse duration was studied for weak and strong laser pump. It was shown that the optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiency is saturated as a result of the Kerr self-phase modulation of the optical pump.