TeraVision: A LabVIEW Software for THz Hyper-Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy (TDS) has emerged during the last two decades as a very popular technique for characterizing the low-energy excitations of several materials, gaseous, liquids and solids, as well as artificial materials as for instance epitaxial heterostructures and more. In recent years, the advances in THz technology allowed obtaining nonlinear optical effects with THz photons, showing remarkable results. In particular, THz Hyper-Raman Spectroscopy greatly expands the spectroscopic capability of the standard THz-TDS by combining intense and broadband THz pulses with a detailed analysis of the spectral content of the generated signal. It is evident that this improvement needs an adequate software support. The main parameter for coding the software which differs with respect to a standard THz-TDS software is the control of a motorized grating (monochromator), but several routines employed in the setup optimization stage rather than the actual measurement are needed as well. In this paper we present the TeraVision software, based on LabVIEW code, in order to highlight the solutions we adopted to tackle the main experimental challenges as well as to give a pleasant and user-friendly experience to expert users.