Spectrally shaped THz pulses from tapered dielectric waveguides

Abstract In order to exploit the complete scientific potential of user-oriented accelerator facilities, it is necessary to provide adequate pump sources to enable pump-probe science. The users of the European XFEL have requested a THz pump source matching the X-ray repetition rate (10 Hz burst mode with up to 2700 bunches per burst) with a wide range of properties. The quest for suitable THz sources is thus a major development goal. The EuXFEL R&D project STERN is exploring beam-based radiation generation methods using Cherenkov waveguides to satisfy these user requirements. In this work, custom waveguide geometries are designed to generate a THz pulse with arbitrary spectral content. The layer-thickness or inner radius of a wakefield structure is tapered to generate flattop or Gaussian pulses up to 1 THz, which can be scaled to higher frequencies.