Asynchronous Terahertz-field sampling with soliton microcombs
Abstract
Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy records the electric field of terahertz transients and underpins applications from materials science to non-destructive testing. Asynchronous optical sampling enables systems without moving parts, but its acquisition rate remains fundamentally limited by the repetition-rate of the driving femtosecond lasers. Here, we demonstrate asynchronous terahertz-field sampling with two chip-based soliton microcombs. Their ultrahigh 25 GHz pulse repetition-rate drastically reduces dead-time during acquisition, and stabilization via sideband injection-locking enables coherent averaging without active feedback loops. At 10 kHz acquisition rate, we achieve a dynamic range of 74 dB in a single 100 μs scan, and 100 dB after 50 ms of coherent averaging with a 1.6 THz bandwidth. Acquisition rates of up to 100 kHz are demonstrated, limited only by detection electronics. Together with a proof-of-concept silicon wafer thickness measurement, these results establish soliton microcombs as compact sources for rapid terahertz-field sampling.
Related
- Power-Bandwidth Scaling of Resonantly Coupled Soliton Microcombs
- Broadband soliton microcombs in the biological window enabled by a resonant coupler
- Mapping Source-Resolved Phase-Noise Transfer in Soliton Microcombs
- Modeling of jitter correction methods for asynchronous optical sampling
- From terahertz to infrared: field-effect transistor detectors cover 3 orders of magnitude in wavelength from 5.5 𝜇m to 6 mm
BibTeX
@misc{sakharova2026asynchronous,
title = {{Asynchronous Terahertz-field sampling with soliton microcombs}},
author = {Alexandra Sakharova and Alexander E. Ulanov and Konstantin Wenzel and Milan Deumer and Alexander Dohms and Bastian Ruhnke and Lars Liebermeister and Robert B. Kohlhaas and Tobias Herr},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.16479},
eprint = {2610.16479},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16479},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Asynchronous Terahertz-field sampling with soliton microcombs
AU - Alexandra Sakharova
AU - Alexander E. Ulanov
AU - Konstantin Wenzel
AU - Milan Deumer
AU - Alexander Dohms
AU - Bastian Ruhnke
AU - Lars Liebermeister
AU - Robert B. Kohlhaas
AU - Tobias Herr
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.16479
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16479
AB - Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy records the electric field of terahertz transients and underpins applications from materials science to non-destructive testing. Asynchronous optical sampling enables systems without moving parts, but its acquisition rate remains fundamentally limited by the repetition-rate of the driving femtosecond lasers. Here, we demonstrate asynchronous terahertz-field sampling with two chip-based soliton microcombs. Their ultrahigh 25 GHz pulse repetition-rate drastically reduces dead-time during acquisition, and stabilization via sideband injection-locking enables coherent averaging without active feedback loops. At 10 kHz acquisition rate, we achieve a dynamic range of 74 dB in a single 100 μs scan, and 100 dB after 50 ms of coherent averaging with a 1.6 THz bandwidth. Acquisition rates of up to 100 kHz are demonstrated, limited only by detection electronics. Together with a proof-of-concept silicon wafer thickness measurement, these results establish soliton microcombs as compact sources for rapid terahertz-field sampling.
ER -