Steerable THz pulses from thin emitters via optical pulse-front tilt

A new method of steering THz pulses radiated from a thin emitter excited by tilted optical pulse-fronts has been developed theoretically and validated in a proof-of-concept experiment. This steering technique is potentially efficient and rapid, and it should benefit from a THz-pulse energy that can scale with optical-beam size and magnitude. Conversely, the method employed for measuring the steered THz pulses is also capable of characterizing the pulse-front tilt of an optical beam.