528 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 8, NO.
5, SEPTEMBER 2018
Single-Shot Terahertz Time Profiling
Using Curved Wavefront
Sonal Saxena , Suman Bagchi , Bobbili Sanyasi Rao, Prasad Anant Naik, and Juzer Ali Chakera
Abstract—We report an improved single-shot electro-optic sam-
pling (EOS) based detection scheme to measure the time profile
of a terahertz (THz) pulse using inherent curvature of a converg-
ing wavefront. A simple addition to conventional multishot EOS
technique enables single-shot recording of THz time profile. While
the temporal resolution of the proposed method is limited only
by the duration of the probe laser pulse, the spatial resolution
can be externally controlled with ease. Our method is easy to im-
plement and has the potential to provide better signal-to-noise
ratio compared to other single-shot methods. An interesting spin-
off of the proposed technique is that the quintessential space-to-
time calibration process itself reveals the spatial profile of the THz
radiation. The technique is simple yet versatile and capable of
characterizing THz radiation emitted by high-power THz sources
employing ultrashort intense lasers and modern-day particle ac-
celerators. As a proof of principle demonstration, we provide
measurement and characterization of the THz pulse emitted
by two-color laser-produced plasma in ambient atmosphere
using 45 fs Ti:sapphire laser pulses. Our method faithfully
reproduces the THz waveform measured by conventional scanning
EOS technique.
Index Terms—Electro-optic (EO) detection, imaging, laser ap-
plications, signal detection, terahertz (THz) radiation, ultrashort
laser.
I. INTRODUCTION
LACUNA in the electromagnetic wave spectrum between
A far infrared and microwaves remained for long in the ab-
sence of efficient electronic or optical methods of generation and
detection. This spectral region from 0.1 to 10 terahertz (THz)
was thereby termed as the “THz gap,” and extensive research
during the last two decades has been able to almost fill it [1]–[4].
Demand for an intense and brighter source has ever been rising,
owing to vast and diversified application areas from medicine
[5] to security [6], from astronomy [7] to communication [8],
and from basic research in material science [9] to crucial in-
vestigations like cancer diagnosis [10]. Static and time-resolved
spectroscopy, along with imaging in the THz regime, has proved
to be a powerful research tool in condensed matter physics,
Manuscript received April 1, 2018; revised June 2, 2018 and June 21, 2018;
accepted June 22, 2018. Date of publication June 27, 2018; date of current
version September 10, 2018. (Corresponding author: Suman Bagchi.)
S. Saxena, S. Bagchi, P. A. Naik, and J. A. Chakera are with Raja Ramanna
Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452013, India (e-mail:,sonals@rrcat.
gov.in; sbagchi@rrcat.gov.in; panaik@rrcat.gov.in; chakera@rrcat.gov.in).
B. S. Rao is with the Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute of Basic
Sciences, Daejeon 34126, South Korea, on leave from Raja Ramanna Centre for
Advanced Technology, Indore 452013, India (e-mail:,sunnyb@rrcat.gov.in).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TTHZ.2018.2851154
2156-342X © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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physical chemistry, and in a number of other fundamental areas
of science [11], [12]. An important procedure carried out with
THz radiation is the THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS)
[13], capable of resolving spectral features of several chemicals
[14], drugs [15], and explosives [16]. In THz-TDS, an ultra-
short laser pulse probes the THz field amplitude at successive
intervals in time to construct the complete temporal waveform
of the radiation. It is a rather time-consuming process and is
prone to large errors when the source itself or the background
conditions suffer from significant variations. Moreover, with the
present-day high-power THz sources based on lasers and accel-
erators, the well-known multishot delay scanning methods for
waveform detection are impractical as they offer low repetition
rates and are prone to large shot-to-shot fluctuations.
In addition, some experiments require more than one temporal
delay line, like the study of carrier dynamics in semiconductors
[17] or understanding the contribution of various vibrational,
electronic, and rotational degrees of freedom in the composite
response of a system subjected to THz radiation [18]. Addition
of such multiple delay lines further increases the time taken
to record an entire dataset for a single sample. While reading
reversible processes, the sequential detection of signal suffices
to yield the required information, but the irreversible phenom-
ena demand an accurate single-shot waveform acquisition as a
prerequisite. This desire to record rapid time dynamics of phe-
nomena, e.g., material damage, structural phase transitions, or
chemical changes, has led to the growth of a few single-shot
waveform detection methods in the THz domain, each having
their own merits and demerits [18], [19].
The most widely used method for single-shot detection of
THz radiation is spectral encoding [20], wherein the temporal
profile of the THz pulse is encoded on a sufficiently long tempo-
rally chirped probe pulse, as they pass through an electro-optic
(EO) crystal. However, an additional system for the introduction
of temporal chirp in the laser beam is required, and the knowl-
edge of its exact frequency-to-time calibration is crucial. Despite
its popularity, this method has an inherent temporal resolution
limit [21] given by the square root of the product of chirped pulse
time duration and the Fourier transform limited pulse duration.
Therefore, it is not suitable for measuring very short duration
THz radiation pulses. This problem was somewhat addressed by
the spectral interferometry detection technique [22], wherein the
chirped probe carrying THz information is collinearly matched
with a short transform-limited duration readout pulse sent after
a delay in a spectrograph. In this case, the temporal resolution
is defined by the duration of the readout pulse. In addition to
SAXENA et al.: SINGLE-SHOT THz TIME PROFILING USING CURVED WAVEFRONT
Fig. 1. (a) Curved wavefront of converging laser beam at some plane perpen-
dicular to the laser propagation direction, at z distance from the focal plane.
Wavefronts at other positions are shown as dotted lines. (b) Evolution of beam
radius and the radius of curvature are plotted with increasing distance from the
beam waist z. (c) Time delay between the fastest and the slowest part of the
curved wavefront with increasing defocussing distance.
the requirement of a high-resolution spectrograph, very precise
alignment is needed for larger temporal windows [18]. Since
interferometry is a highly sensitive technique, stringent experi-
mental conditions are critical for maintaining the fringe fidelity.
Other approaches based on custom-made dual transmission ech-
elons work on the principle of angle-to-time mapping [23] and
depend very much on the fabrication quality of optics. In an
alternative set of techniques based on spatial encoding, i.e.,
space-to-time mapping, a tilted probe pulse front interacts with
a large THz beam size at the EO crystal [24]–[26]. But ow-
ing to relatively lower THz energy density across the detection
area, apparent larger noise contribution surfaces in the recorded
spectra. However, most of these techniques lack any informa-
tion regarding the spatial profile of the THz beam. Therefore,
it is highly desirable to realize a single-shot detection scheme
for THz radiation, which offers good measurement sensitivity
in time domain, provides high-resolution spatial profile along
with, and is devoid of limitations of the existing schemes.
II. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF DETECTION
In this paper, we present a new and easy way to implement the
single-shot THz temporal profile detection method. Our tech-
nique is based on the temporal delay inherent in the curvature
of a converging wavefront. Consider a plane wavefront with a
Gaussian intensity profile being focused by a lens having a focal
length of +f to a focal beam waist w0 , as shown in Fig. 1(a).
Evidently following the properties of the Gaussian beam, the
wavefront is again planar at the focus. However, if we con-
sider the wavefront at a distance z (|z|  zR ) from the focus,
the wavefront is converging in nature. Here, zR (= πw02 /λ)
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529
for laser wavelength λ and focal spot size “w0 ” represents the
conventional meaning of the Rayleigh range of the focusing ge-
ometry. When this converging wavefront is incident on a plane
at a distance z, perpendicular to the propagation direction of the
beam, it is evident that the off-axial, i.e., marginal, rays will
arrive earlier than the axial rays. In other words, a finite time
delay δt exists between the arrival of marginal and axial rays.
The value of the delay δt is therefore governed by the wavefront
curvature ξ(z) = 1/R(z), where R(z) is the radius of curva-
ture of the wavefront at a distance z from the focal spot. For
a Gaussian beam, the radius of curvature can be conveniently
written as
  z 2 
R
R (z) = z 1 + (1)
z
and the corresponding beam radius at z can be written as
  2
z
w (z) = w0 1 + . (2)
zR
Considering the instant at which the marginal rays just touch
the vertical plane at z, the spatial separation between the position
of marginal rays and the axial ray can be written as
δz = R (z) (1 − cos θ) (3)
using simple ray tracing calculations. Therefore, the time delay
δt can be expressed as δt = δz/c, where c is the velocity of
light. For example, given an input beam diameter D = 40 mm
for a Gaussian laser beam of wavelength λ = 800 nm, focused
by a lens having a focal length f = +640 mm to a typical spot
size w0 ∼5 μm, the variation of radius of curvature R(z) and
beam waist w(z) is displayed in Fig. 1(b), where the distance z
has been varied up to 1 m. The resulting time delay δt between
the marginal and the axial rays with increasing values of z is
shown in Fig. 1(c).
Notably, as the distance from the focus z increases, the delay
δt can easily reach up to few picoseconds in magnitude. The
time delay δt represents the maximum of the time difference
in the arrival times. It is therefore evident that for any ray lying on
the curved wavefront, a finite time difference exists in the arrival
time with respect to the axial ray. Therefore, the knowledge
of the wavefront curvature provides an accurate mapping of the
time delays for all the points lying on the curved wavefront.
Thus, a dynamic event happening within the time interval δt
can be faithfully probed by such a curved wavefront with its dif-
ferent radial positions representing various time slices probing
the phenomena at continually varying time delays. Notably, the
time delay δt mentioned previously represents the maximum
duration of an event, which can be probed continuously with
such curved wavefront and should not be confused with the
time resolution of such measurements. The time resolution of
such measurements is limited only by the width of the wavefront
as decided by the laser pulse duration.
We have used this principle for the detection of time profile of
THz electric field in an improved electro-optic sampling (EOS)
technique. The proposed technique is simple yet quite versatile
530 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 8, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 2018
Fig. 2. Schematic experimental setup displaying single-shot THz detection.
Two-color laser-induced air plasma setup is also shown as the THz generation
mechanism.
in nature and can very easily be integrated in conventional EOS-
based setups.
III. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The experimental setup implementing the proposed single-
shot detection scheme is shown in Fig. 2. Experiments were
conducted using 45-fs 800-nm Ti:sapphire laser system deliv-
ering horizontally polarized laser pulses at the 10 Hz repetition
rate. As input, 10 mJ of laser energy is used. Major part of
this energy, transmitted through the optical wedge, is focused
using a positive lens of +70 cm focal length to ionize the
ambient air and produce a plasma channel. A 100-μm-thick
β-barium borate (BBO) crystal is used for 2ω generation and
is placed in between the lens and its focal plane. The funda-
mental and second harmonic lasers are in this way cofocused to
produce a net asymmetric electric field [27] in the plasma. Free
plasma electrons drift preferentially in one direction, leading to
a transient current on the time scale of driving pulse duration.
Transient current in the duration of tens of femtoseconds emits
electromagnetic radiation in the THz frequency range in the
forward direction in a cone [28], [29]. A pair of 90° off-axis
parabolic mirrors (OAPMs) is used to collimate and refocus the
THz beam.
The small portion of laser energy, reflected from the surface of
the optical wedge, is used as the probe beam. A delay stage has
been provided in the probe beam path for fine-tuning the tempo-
ral overlapping of probe and THz pulses. The collimated weak
probe pulse is then reflected by a 1-mm-thick high resistance
float zone silicon wafer. The wafer is used as a broadband trans-
mitting filter for the THz beam and combines the paths of THz
beam with the probe beam. Both the collimated THz beam and
the probe beam are then incident on the second OAPM, which
focuses both the rays together to a small focal spot. A 200-μm-
thick 110 ZnTe crystal is placed at the focus of the second
OAPM (+152 mm), and both the beams overlap spatially and
temporally on the front surface of the crystal. As the quasi-dc
electric field of the THz radiation influences the birefringence
of the ZnTe crystal, the polarization of the probe laser beam
is rotated in proportion to the magnitude of the instantaneous
THz electric field. The rotation in probe beam polarization is
measured using a crossed Glan–Thompson (GT) polarizer. The
leakage of the analyzer prism is then fed to a photodetector for
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recording of the THz electric field profile. Notably, the use of a
differential detection scheme at this stage can definitely enhance
the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the measurement. Evidently,
the scheme described till now is essentially a conventional mul-
tishot EOS setup. Although the multishot EOS setup suffices to
yield THz time profile, it does not reveal any information on its
spatial properties.
Now, we introduce a small addition to the existing setup in
the form of a positive lens, having a focal length of +50 mm, in
the probe path. The positive lens is kept 200 mm away from the
second OAPM. The probe beam now is focused by the positive
lens, and the second OAPM having a focal length of +152 mm
refocuses it to a distance of 640 mm from the second OAPM. As
the ZnTe crystal has been placed at the focus of the previously
collimated probe beam, i.e., at a distance of +152 mm from the
second OAPM, in the present modified scenario, it experiences
a probe beam having curved wavefront. Therefore, the ZnTe
crystal is effectively at a distance of 488 mm away from the
present focus position of the probe beam. However, for the THz
beam, the ZnTe crystal is still at its focus. The ZnTe surface is
now imaged on a two-dimensional (2-D) visible charge-coupled
device (CCD) sensor screen. Therefore, unlike any typical EOS
setup [28], the spatial information regarding polarization change
of the probe laser beam is not anymore integrated. Evidently,
because of the radial symmetry of the beam, propagation leads to
annular intensity variations across the image. Intensity recorded
at each radial position is in proportion to the THz field amplitude
observed by the probe laser pulse. Scaling of the images in radial
coordinates implies equivalent information recorded along any
direction. In this way, the temporally and spatially resolved
image is used to extract the temporal waveform of THz electric
field on a single-shot basis. Notably, this detection scheme works
equally well for diverging wavefronts as well.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The background images of the probe in the absence of THz
are initially subtracted from those taken in the presence of THz
electric field for enhancing the quality of the recorded images.
The leakage intensity corresponding to the polarization rotation
at each CCD pixel is recorded, as shown in Fig. 3. Notably,
the THz waveform is flat on the ZnTe surface, while the probe
beam wavefront is converging in nature. Therefore, at a fixed
delay time ΔT, decided by adjusting the linear delay stage in
probe path, the variation in intensity distribution in the images
is caused by the probe wavefront characteristics. The pattern
observed should not be confused with the nonuniformity of the
THz generated from two-color laser-induced air plasma [30], as
the THz wavefront in the area of interaction is flat. As explained
earlier, a linear intensity profile taken across the image, through
its center, shall contain THz field profile as mirror values.
The next important step is to map the pixels to time for
extracting the actual temporal waveform of THz radiation. Two
independent methods have been implemented for this purpose.
First, the converging probe beam wavefront is independently
measured by the Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWS)
SAXENA et al.: SINGLE-SHOT THz TIME PROFILING USING CURVED WAVEFRONT
Fig. 3. (a) THz radiation captured as leakage intensity through the GT analyzer
prism. Intensity variation in image is directly proportional to the THz electric
field amplitude observed at the spatial position in probe beam. (b) Line profile
of the THz intensity taken through the image.
Fig. 4. Pulse front of the probe beam at the surface of ZnTe crystal along the
vertical direction, as measured by the SHWS.
placed exactly at the place of the ZnTe crystal [31], [32]. Result
of the SHWS measurement is displayed in Fig. 4, relating the
time delay at various radial positions on the probe wavefront.
The credibility and faithfulness of our single-shot THz tem-
poral profile detection method is confirmed by comparing our
results with those obtained from the conventional multishot EOS
method. The same experimental setup is used for multishot de-
lay scanning by removing the positive lens from the probe beam
path and replacing the CCD camera with a balanced photode-
tector. No further alignment was necessary for obtaining THz
electric field trace with time in the multiple-shot mode. Fig. 5(a)
and (b) shows the multishot EOS plots in black and the traces
obtained from current single-shot detection technique in red. In
the multishot detection setup, an average of 20 shots at each time
delay was taken, because of which the error bars are also seen in
the black plot. It is also observed that the THz temporal profile
and spectrum obtained from the curved wavefront single-shot
match closely with those obtained from the reference multishot
EOS technique. The negative THz electric field values could
be measured only because of the nonzero vertically polarized
leakage through the analyzer prism.
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531
Fig. 5. (a) Temporal waveforms of the THz electric field obtained through
multishot and single-shot detection methods. (b) Spectra corresponding to mul-
tishot and single-shot detection techniques.
It should be noted that although the two-color laser-induced
air plasma is a broadband source of THz radiation, the mea-
sured spectrum is limited because of the phase-mismatching in a
200-μm-thick ZnTe for frequencies beyond 5 THz [33]. Further,
the THz beam travels nearly 70 cm in air at 60% humidity level,
which curtails the spectrum even more. Dry nitrogen purging
in the THz beam path could have preserved the spectrum and
restricted the loss due to the properties of EO crystal. Non-
collinear phase-matching in the ZnTe crystal [34] plays no role
in determining the spectrum, as collinear geometry of multi-
shot EOS features a similar trend. Better temporal resolution of
the curved wavefront single-shot technique, on the other hand,
enhances the spectrum recorded.
There are two competing factors that determine the net tem-
poral resolution of this method. The laser pulse duration is the
obvious one, while the other is constituted by the effective “time
duration” of the probe pulse experienced by each CCD pixel.
The larger of these two factors limits the overall temporal res-
olution of this detection scheme. As the individual pixel size
of the CCD camera employed is 4.65 μm2 , it therefore covers
15.5 fs in time. Thus, the temporal resolution is governed by the
laser pulse duration itself, which is 45 fs. The temporal window
scanned on single-shot basis is 2.8 ps, as is shown in Fig. 5(a).
Positioning and focal lengths of the OAPM and the lens in probe
beam path can be adjusted to regulate the temporal window.
While the temporal characterization of THz radiation ob-
tained from the current curved wavefront single-shot detection
is commensurate with the conventional method, we now dis-
cuss the spatial characterization conducted with this experi-
mental setup. This is an additional and important advantage of
our method compared to other single-shot-based techniques re-
ported in literature. An indirect method of wavefront calibration
requires recording of images at varying temporal delay (ΔT)
given to the probe beam (see Fig. 2). Evidently, with varying
probe delay, ΔT implies that the curved probe beam interacts
with different slices of the THz pulse at the surface of the ZnTe
crystal. Therefore, the region of spatial overlap of these two
pulses shifts toward the radially outward direction. Thus, the
peak amplitude of the THz electric field is now recorded on
a different radial position in the spatial extent of probe beam,
and the recorded peak intensity now depends on the profile of
focused THz beam in space. Fig. 6 shows a schematic of the
interaction.
532 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 8, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 2018
Fig. 6. Schematic of the interaction of the curved probe pulse and the THz
pulse at the surface of the ZnTe crystal.
Fig. 7. Spatial distribution of THz intensity in its focal plane as measured by
the (a) curved wavefront technique and the (b) knife-edge technique.
This implies that, when a smaller cross section of probe’s
wavefront close to axis is coincident with the THz peak electric
field, the ring formed in images captured shall be smaller and
brighter. Similarly, interaction of THz peak field amplitude with
a larger (i.e., marginal) cross section of probe’s wavefront in the
ZnTe crystal shall result in images with bigger and less intense
rings. If the linear intensity profiles through each of these im-
ages are plotted together and their respective peak positions are
identified, the spatial profile of THz focal spot is reconstructed.
As shown in Fig. 7(a), the Gaussian curve fitted over the lin-
ear intensity profiles at varying probe delay features 1.94-mm
value of full-width at half-maximum (FWHM). Peak values of
the line-cuts taken at probe delays ΔT equal to 200, 400, 600,
and 800 fs are marked as green circles in the graph. A reference
study for spatial distribution of intensity in the THz focal spot
was also conducted using the knife-edge method. A sharp knife-
edge is traversed across the focal plane of THz in one direction.
The transmitted THz energy, measured on a detector placed
after the THz focal plane, keeps on increasing as the knife-edge
passes over the spatial extent of the THz focus. When whole of
the THz spot size is exposed, the measured energy gets satu-
rated. A derivative of this trend depicts the spatial distribution
of THz energy in its focal spot. Further measurement reveals
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good matching values of FWHM in this technique as obtained
through the multishot curved wavefront method.
In similar techniques involving space-to-time mapping [19]–
[21], the THz beam size needs to be increased in order to cover
larger temporal window of the THz electric field, thereby de-
creasing the SNR. The interaction of probe’s pulse front with
the focused THz spot in the present scheme provides better
SNR with respect to the existing spatial encoding detection
techniques. This makes the scheme suitable for the detection
of weak THz radiation sources. Moreover, for the broadband
THz sources having frequency-dependent spatial distribution
[35], [36], a focused THz spot in the interaction region en-
sures spectral uniformity. While setting up of our technique
is quite simple, reverting back to the multishot EOS setup for
verification purpose does not require any realignment of the
probe beam. The present technique requires a simple lens of an
appropriate focal length to realize the scheme, which is com-
monly available with any laser laboratory. Temporal resolution
of the curved wavefront THz waveform detection method is
the minimum possible for any measurement technique, i.e., the
laser pulse duration. It is also possible to tune the temporal
window scanned in single shot by altering the position and fo-
cal length of OAPM and probe beam path lens. The curved
wavefront setup not only provides the temporal profile of the
THz electric field on a single-shot basis but also deciphers the
spatial distribution of THz intensity in the multishot proce-
dure. If one uses a circularly polarized probe beam, one can
have a balanced detection setup, which will further improve the
overall SNR.
V. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we have devised a simple single-shot THz
electric field profile measurement technique based on the EOS
method. This was accomplished by addition of a positive lens
to the conventional EOS experimental setup. The curved wave-
front of the probe laser scans the entire THz electric field profile
and generates a 2-D image with THz information encrypted as
intensity variation. This time-integrated image provides the THz
field evolution with time as intensity variation along the radial
vector on a single-shot basis. Space vector in the image is related
to temporal delays in the probe’s wavefront. The space-to-time
mapping is carried out in multiple steps by changing the probe
delay and recoding the variations. The mapping yields intensity
variation in spatial profile of the THz focal spot on a multishot
basis. This method is therefore capable of providing the THz
spatial profile in multiple shots and the temporal profile in the
single-shot mode. Overall, this technique offers a straightfor-
ward option for real-time data acquisition for THz radiation and
may be very useful for various applications.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank R. A. Joshi and R. K. Bhat for
laser operation and S. Sebastin, R. P. Kushwaha, D. Karmakar,
and K. C. Parmar for mechanical support during the experiment.
The authors also thank S. A. Pai and S. Sendhil Raja for useful
discussions and for providing SHWS for measurements.
SAXENA et al.: SINGLE-SHOT THz TIME PROFILING USING CURVED WAVEFRONT
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Sonal Saxena was born in Ghaziabad, India, on June
28, 1987. She received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees
from the University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India, in
2009 and 2011, respectively. She is currently working
toward the Ph.D. degree at the Laser Plasma Section,
Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, In-
dore, India.
She is currently focusing on terahertz generation
through laser–plasma interaction.
Suman Bagchi was born in Kolkata, India, on April
21, 1978. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees
from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India, in
1998 and 2001, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree
in laser matter interactions from the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India.
He was with the Diocles Laser Laboratory, Uni-
versity of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA, as
a Postdoctoral Research Associate for one year. After
returning to India, he was with the Advanced Centre
of Research in High Energy Materials, University of
Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India, as a Postdoctoral Fellow. In 2010, he joined the
Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore, India, as
a Dr. K. S. Krishnan Research Associate for one year. In 2011, he joined the
Laser Plasma Section, RRCAT. His research interests include ion acceleration
from laser produced plasmas, monoenergetic ion acceleration, the production
of positive, negative, and neutral particles from high-temperature solid density
plasma, THz generation in air and in materials, blast wave detection, etc.
534 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 8, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 2018

Bobbili Sanyasi Rao was born in Visakhapatnam,
India, on July 15, 1977. He received the Ph.D. de-
gree from the Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mum-
bai, India, upon submission of the thesis entitled
“Laser Driven Plasma-Based Electron Acceleration”
in 2013.
In 2003, he joined the Bhabha Atomic Re-
search Centre Training School, Raja Ramanna Centre
for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore, India.
Since 2004, he has been a Permanent Staff Scientist
with RRCAT, involved in the field of laser-produced
plasmas. He is currently a Scientific Officer (F) and a Member of the Laser
Plasma Section, RRCAT. Since August 2016, he has been a Research Fellow
with the Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute of Basic Sciences, Dae-
jeon, South Korea, where his areas of research involve using 4-pW laser to
demonstrate near 10-GeV electron beams and apply them to drive bright source
of muon pairs. His research interests include understanding the physics of in-
tense laser–matter interactions and development of compact and bright sources
of ultrashort pulsed high-energy electrons, X-rays, THz rays, and also exotic
particles like muon pairs using terawatt to multipetawatt lasers.
Juzer Ali Chakera was born in Mhow, India, on
February 3, 1967. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc.
degrees from Holkar Science College, Indore, India,
in 1986 and 1988, respectively, the M.Tech. degree
from Anna University, Chennai, India, in 1992,the
Ph.D. degree from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, In-
dore, India, in 2005, and the Postdoctoral degree from
the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineer-
ing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada,
in 2008.
In 1991, he was with the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre, Mumbai, India, where he was involved in the field of laser–plasma inter-
actions. In 1993, he joined the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology
(RRCAT). He is currently the Head of the Laser Plasma Section, RRCAT. His
research interests include higher harmonic generation, physics at ultrahigh laser
intensities, laser-based electron acceleration, laser-based generation of positive
and negative ions and neutral particles, time-resolved X-ray diffraction, attosec-
ond pulse generation, X-ray lasers, and THz generation.

Prasad Anant Naik was born in Goa, India, on

March 17, 1959. He received the B.Sc. degree from
the University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India, in 1979,
the M.Sc. degree from the Indian Institute of Technol-
ogy, Mumbai, India, in 1981, and the Ph.D. degree in
X-ray spectroscopy of laser-produced plasmas from
the University of Mumbai, in 1991.
In 1982, he was with the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre, Mumbai, India, where he was involved in the
field of laser-produced plasmas and various plasma
diagnostics such as interferometry, shadowgraphy,
ion probes, and space- and time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy. Since 1990, he
has been with the Laser Plasma Section, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced
Technology, Indore, India, where he is currently the Director of the Institute.
From 1993 to 1996, he was an NSERC Canada International Fellow with the
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB,
Canada. His research interests include laser–plasma interaction, table-top ter-
awatt lasers, ultrashort pulse diagnostics, physics at ultrahigh laser intensities,
laser-based electron acceleration, and X-ray lasers.

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