研究和开发基于超短波和低能量激光系统的高振幅、 宽频带的太赫兹系统一直是太赫兹应用领域的一个热点。与传统电光晶体材料相比, 以电光聚合物薄膜作为太赫兹波产生和检测的最大的优势在于: 一方面电光聚合物不具有晶格结构相应的不存在声子的吸收和太赫兹折射率的散射问题, 避免光谱间隙的产生; 另一方面电光聚合物薄膜与已用于宽频太赫兹系统中的超薄电光晶体材料相比, 更易于加工和处理。另外, 可以自行设计得到低相位失配和高电光系数的电光聚合物材料, 得到高效率和宽频带的太赫兹辐射源。可以预见, 电光聚合物在这一领域的应用必将有宽阔的发展空间和学术研究意义。介绍电光聚合物的电光效应及二阶非线性生色团合成等相关理论问题基础上, 综述了近二十多年来, 电光聚合物在基于全光技术实现太赫兹波产生与检测系统中的研究进展, 主要包括: 掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光激发下, 共聚型和主客体型电光聚合物实现太赫兹波产生与检测; 光纤飞秒激光激发下, 主客体型电光聚合物实现太赫兹波的产生与检测。

Research on and development of the high amplitude, broadband terahertz system based on ultra-short pulse, low-power laser system is a hot spot in the field of terahertz. So far, for all the reported THz bandwidths broader than 10 THz, there always exist strong dispersion and absorption gaps associated with the lattice resonance in either the photoconductive materials or crystalline EO materials. If such THz sources and detectors are employed in spectroscopic studies, spectral information in these gaps cannot be extracted. One of the advantages of using amorphous electro-optic polymer films as THz emitters and sensors is that there is no dispersion or absorption resulting from the lattice resonance effect, making a gap-free THz spectrum possible. Another advantage of electro-optic polymer films is the ease of fabrication and handling, in contrast to the extremely thin crystalline electro-optic materials used for existing broadband THz system. In addition, we can engineer the electro-optic polymeric materials to achieve small phase mismatch and high electro-optic coefficients such that brightness and broad bandwidth of THz radiation can be obtained. In this thesis a theoretical description of electro-optic effect based on electro-optic polymer and the second-order nonlinear chromophores synthesis is reviewed. In the past 20 years, progress in electro-optic polymer in the field of generating and detecting terahertz radiation by all-optical techniques is summarized, including the terahertz systems based on copolymer and the guest-host polymer induced by Titanium doped sapphire femtosecond laser and based on the guest-host polymer at communication wavelengths.