MV/cm THz pulses from a coherent transition radiation source

THz pulses with energies up to 100 μJ and corresponding electric fields up to 1 MV/cm were generated by coherent transition radiation from 500 MeV electron bunches at the free electron laser FLASH. The pulses were characterized in the time domain by electro-optical sampling by a synchronized femtosecond laser with jitter of less than 100 fs.