Air-plasma-based all-optical temporal integration of broadband terahertz pulses

Abstract: Platforms for all-optical computing possess photonic circuits made of silicon-based channels, metal wires or optical fibers, etc. However, such solid waveguides suffer from the lack of reversibility and reconfigurability if facing the next generation of light-guiding-light (LGL) computing scheme, which envisions circuitry-free and rapidly reconfigurable systems powered by dynamic interactions between light beams. Here, we proposed the ubiquitous air as a restorable LGL signal manipulation medium with transient air-plasma waveguide circuits. Briefly, by focusing femtosecond laser beams in the free space, the created atmospherical plasma filament array via photoionization was able to guide terahertz (THz) pulses along its epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) zone with a 1/f-profile spectral response. Consequently, this achieved a time-domain integration of the THz pulse in broad bandwidth. When the pumping laser was sequentially turned off and on, this multi-filament air-plasma structure was erased and rebuilt within nano- and femto-seconds, respectively, allowing rapid and repeated rearrangements of the all-optical stage. Furthermore, this air-based LGL information processing approach is promising to pave the way towards all-optical calculations during free-space directional transmission of THz waves, by which means the delivered THz signal can be remotely controlled.