In this paper, we will review both past and recent progresses in the generation, detection and application of intense terahertz (THz) radiation. We will restrict the review to laser based intense few-cycle THz sources, and thus will not include sources such as synchrotron-based or narrowband sources. We will first review the various methods used for generating intense THz radiation, including photoconductive antennas (PCAs), optical rectification sources (especially the tilted-pulse-front lithium niobate source and the DAST source, but also those using other crystals), air plasma THz sources and relativistic laser-plasma sources. Next, we will give a brief introduction on the common methods for coherent THz detection techniques (namely the PCA technique and the electro-optic sampling), and point out the limitations of these techniques for measuring intense THz radiation. We will then review three techniques that are highly suited for detecting intense THz radiation, namely the air breakdown coherent detection technique, various single-shot THz detection techniques, and the spectral-domain interferometry technique. Finally, we will give an overview of the various applications that have been made possible with such intense THz sources, including nonlinear THz spectroscopy of condensed matter (optical-pump/ THz-probe, THz-pump/THz-probe, THz-pump/optical-probe), nonlinear THz optics, resonant and non-resonant control of material (such as switching of superconductivity, magnetic and polarization switching) and controlling the nonlinear response of metamaterials. We will also provide a short perspective on the future of intense THz sources and their applications.

Turbulence in fluids is a ubiquitous, fascinating, and complex natural phenomenon that is not yet fully understood. Unraveling turbulence in high density, high temperature plasmas is an even bigger challenge because of the importance of electromagnetic forces and the typically violent environments. Fascinating and novel behavior of hot dense matter has so far been only indirectly inferred because of the enormous difficulties of making observations on such matter. Here, we present direct evidence of turbulence in giant magnetic fields created in an overdense, hot plasma by relativistic intensity (10 ¹⁸ W/cm ² ) femtosecond laser pulses. We have obtained magneto-optic polarigrams at femtosecond time intervals, simultaneously with micrometer spatial resolution. The spatial profiles of the magnetic field show randomness and their k spectra exhibit a power law along with certain well defined peaks at scales shorter than skin depth. Detailed two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations delineate the underlying interaction between forward currents of relativistic energy “hot” electrons created by the laser pulse and “cold” return currents of thermal electrons induced in the target. Our results are not only fundamentally interesting but should also arouse interest on the role of magnetic turbulence induced resistivity in the context of fast ignition of laser fusion, and the possibility of experimentally simulating such structures with respect to the sun and other stellar environments.

In high-order harmonic generation, resonant harmonics (RH) are sources of intense, coherent extreme-ultraviolet radiation. However, intensity enhancement of RH only occurs for a single harmonic order, making it challenging to generate short attosecond pulses. Moreover, the mechanism involved behind such RH was circumstantial, because of the lack of direct experimental proofs. Here, we demonstrate the exact quantum paths that electron follows for RH generation using tin, showing that it involves not only the autoionizing state, but also a harmonic generation from dressed-AIS that appears as two coherent satellite harmonics at frequencies ±2Ω from the RH (Ω represents laser frequency). Our observations of harmonic emission from dressed states open the possibilities of generating intense and broadband attosecond pulses, thus contributing to future applications in attosecond science, as well as the perspective of studying the femtosecond and attosecond dynamics of autoionizing states.

We report a 43-fold enhancement in the hard x-ray emission (in the 150–300 keV range) from copper nanorod arrays (compared to a polished Cu surface) when excited by 30-fs, 800-nm laser pulses with an intensity of ${10}^{16}$ W/cm${}^2$. The temperature of the hot electrons that emit the x rays is 11 times higher. Significantly, the x-ray yield enhancement is found to depend on both the aspect ratio as well as the cluster size of the nanorods. We show that the higher yield arises from enhanced laser absorption owing to the extremely high local electric fields around the nanorod tips. Particle-in-cell plasma simulations reproduce these observations and provide pointers to further optimization of the x-ray emission.

We demonstrate that aligned carbon-nanotube arrays are efficient transporters of laser-generated mega-ampere electron currents over distances as large as a millimeter. A direct polarimetric measurement of the temporal and the spatial evolution of the megagauss magnetic fields (as high as 120 MG) at the target rear at an intensity of $({10}^{18}–{10}^{19})\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^2$ was corroborated by the rear-side hot electron spectra. Simulations show that such high magnetic flux densities can only be generated by a very well collimated fast electron bunch.