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Tochitsky et al. Vol. 24, No. 9 / September 2007 / J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 2509 High-power tunable, 0.5– 3 THz radiation source based on nonlinear difference frequency mixing of CO2 laser lines Sergei Ya. Tochitsky,1,* Chieh Sung,1 Sarah E. Trubnick,1 Chan Joshi,1 and Konstantin L. Vodopyanov2 1Department of Electrical Engineering, Neptune Laboratory, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095 2E.L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 *Corresponding author: sergei12@ Received March 29, 2007; revised May 2, 2007; accepted May 4, 2007; posted June 20, 2007 (Doc. ID 81626); published August 31, 2007 Terahertz (THz) pulses with a peak power of ?2 kW were generated in a noncollinear phase-matched GaAs crystal at room temperature. Two 200 ns pulses from a dual-beam TEA CO2 laser were used for difference frequency mixing in the crystal. A comb of narrow lines ??? / ? ? 10?4? was obtained in the 0.5– 3 THz range with a step of 40 GHz. By comparing the effective nonlinearity of GaSe with that of GaAs for THz generation, the electro-optic nonlinear coef?cient for GaSe was measured to be deo= 24.3± 10% pm/ V. Using simulations we show that a 1 kW THz pulse could be ampli?ed by a factor of 2 ? 104 to a 10 MW level in a 2 m long singlepass free-electron laser. ? 2007 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 140.3470, 140.2600, 160.4330, 190.2620. 1. INTRODUCTION Despite signi?cant efforts dedicated to the development of terahertz (THz) wave sources during the last decade, the frequency range between 0.3 and 3 THz remains one of the least tapped regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Broadband THz sources based on the recti?cation of femtosecond laser pulses are the most studied and widely used generators in this region [1]. However, a narrowband, high-power source is needed for the spectrally selective analysis of biomedical and semiconductor samples as well as for monochromatic THz imaging. The most successful techniques fo