Terahertz radiation from a wire target irradiated by an ultra-intense laser pulse

When an ultra-intense laser pulse impacts the tip of a wire whose other end is grounded, a strong return current can be driven along the wire because some energetic electrons generated in ultra-intense laser matter interaction can escape from the target and an electric field builds up. The wire then behaves like a current-carrying antenna that can emit electromagnetic radiations. If the duration of the driving pulse is several tens of femtoseconds, the radiation spectrum reaches a maximum at terahertz region, and the radiation power per solid angle could be as high as 109W∕rad.