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.

Low-frequency currents induced by ultrashort laser-driven ionization can emit extremely broadband, single-cycle terahertz pulses. We present a model that predicts a strong wavelength dependence of the THz emission in good agreement with our experimental study. This reveals that the combined effects of plasma currents rising proportionally to the square of the pump wavelength and wavelength-dependent focusing conditions lead to 30 times higher THz emission at 1800 nm compared to an 800 nm wavelength. Unrivaled single-cycle electric field strengths of $4.4\mathrm{MV}/\mathrm{cm}$ are achieved with this compact table-top setup.

We demonstrate the generation μJ-level, single-cycle terahertz pulses by optical rectification from a large-aperture ZnTe single crystal wafer. Energies up to 1.5 μJ per pulse and a spectral range extending to 3 THz were obtained using a 100 Hz Ti:sapphire laser source and a 75-mm-diameter, 0.5-mm-thick, (110) ZnTe crystal, corresponding to an average power of 150 μW and an energy conversion efficiency of 3.1 × 10^-5. We also demonstrate real-time imaging of the focused terahertz beam using a pyroelectric infrared camera.

Metamaterial induced transparency is demonstrated using individual split ring resonators with two gaps on opposite side. For the symmetric structure, only a low quality dipolar resonance is witnessed at a normal incidence excited with electric field along the resonator gaps. Displacement of one gap from the centre breaks the symmetry and a higher order mode, inaccessible in the symmetric structure, is excited. Coherent interaction among the modes in the split ring resonator forms an extremely sharp narrowband transparency window centred directly at the dipole resonance. Such metamaterial could facilitate coherent manipulation of terahertz signals for delay, storage, and nonlinear applications.

We report the demonstration of strong resonance enhancement of a single high-order harmonic in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) region generated from the interaction of a femtosecond pulse with low-ionized In ablation. A strong 13th harmonic $\left(61.2\mathrm{nm}\right)$ of Ti:sapphire laser radiation with output intensity almost two orders of magnitude higher than neighboring harmonics was observed in these studies. The high conversion efficiency of the 13th harmonic $(8\times {10}^{-5})$ is attributed to multiple collisions of electron trajectories with the origin due to multiphoton resonance with the In ion.

Today’s ultrafast lasers operate at the physical limits of optical materials to reach extreme performances. Amplification of single-cycle laser pulses with their corresponding octave-spanning spectra still remains a formidable challenge since the universal dilemma of gain narrowing sets limits for both real level pumped amplifiers as well as parametric amplifiers. We demonstrate that employing parametric amplification in the frequency domain rather than in time domain opens up new design opportunities for ultrafast laser science, with the potential to generate single-cycle multi-terawatt pulses. Fundamental restrictions arising from phase mismatch and damage threshold of nonlinear laser crystals are not only circumvented but also exploited to produce a synergy between increased seed spectrum and increased pump energy. This concept was successfully demonstrated by generating carrier envelope phase stable, 1.43 mJ two-cycle pulses at 1.8 μm wavelength.