New soliton regime of generation of broadband terahertz radiation by laser pulses with tilted wave fronts

A new soliton-like regime of generation of terahertz radiation by optical pulses with tilted wave fronts is analyzed. It has been shown that the diffraction of an optical pulse is of fundamental importance for the formation of optical–terahertz soliton. A nonsoliton broadband terahertz component is generated synchronously with the soliton component of radiation. Two matching conditions called “super-Cherenkov” and “anti-Cherenkov” have been revealed under which generation is the most efficient. In the former and latter cases, the optical terahertz soliton propagates ahead and behind the nonsoliton terahertz component, respectively.