Reliable modulation of terahertz electromagnetic waveforms is important for many applications. Here, we rapidly modulate the direction of the electric field of linearly polarized terahertz electromagnetic pulses with 1-30 THz bandwidth by applying time-dependent magnetic fields to a spintronic terahertz emitter.
Polarity modulation of the terahertz field with more than 99% contrast at a rate of 10 kHz is achieved using a harmonic magnetic field. By adding a static magnetic field, we modulate the direction of the terahertz field between angles of, for instance, -53 degrees and 53 degrees at kilohertz rates.
We believe our approach makes spintronic terahertz emitters a promising source for low-noise modulation spectroscopy and polarization-sensitive techniques such as ellipsometry at 1-30 THz. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement