Free‐space super‐strong terahertz (THz) electromagnetic fields offer multifaceted capabilities for reaching extreme nonlinear THz optics. However, the lack of powerful solid‐state THz sources with single pulse energy >1 mJ is impeding the proliferation of extreme THz applications. The fundamental challenge lies in hard to achieve high efficiency due to high intensity pumping caused crystal damage, linear absorption, and nonlinear distortion induced short effective interaction length, and so on. Here, through cryogenically cooling the crystals, tailoring the pump laser spectra, chirping the pump pulses, and magnifying the laser energies, 1.4‐mJ THz pulses are successfully realized in lithium niobates under the excitation of 214‐mJ femtosecond laser pulses via tilted pulse front technique. The 800 nm‐to‐THz energy conversion efficiency reaches 0.7%, and a free‐space THz peak electric and magnetic field reaches 6.3 MV cm−1 and 2.1 Tesla. Numerical simulations reproduce the experimental optimization processes. To show the capability of this super‐strong THz source, nonlinear absorption in high conductive silicon induced by strong THz electric field is demonstrated. Such a high‐energy THz source with a relatively low peak frequency is very appropriate not only for electron acceleration toward table‐top X‐ray sources but also for extreme THz science and nonlinear applications.

Genetic variants in the 22q11 gene ZDHHC8, which encodes a putative transmembrane palmitoyltransferase, has been associated to schizophrenia in family-based linkage disequilibrium (LD) studies. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs175174 (A/G), which had the strongest association, has been shown recently to regulate the level of the fully functional transcript by modulating the retention of intron 4 of ZDHHC8. In this work, we genotyped three genetic variants within the ZDHHC8 locus and conducted association studies in both population- and family-based samples of the Han Chinese population. The three polymorphisms spanning approximately 5.5 Kb were detected to be in significant LD. Our results provided compelling supportive evidence for association of the variants within the ZDHHC8 locus with schizophrenia but revealed different risk allele at SNP rs175174. The G allele was significantly more common in cases than in controls (69.47 : 59.96%; P=0.000018) and excess transmission of the same allele was confirmed in the family-based transmission disequilibrium test (transmitted/non-transmitted=87 : 54; P=0.0055). Both sample sets even shared the same risk haplotype with similar frequency. Our current data presents consistent association results obtained from both case-control and family-based samples in a same laboratory under the same experimental condition. Despite the potential genetic heterogeneity, our independent findings further support that the 22q11 region is likely to harbor candidate schizophrenia susceptibility genes.

Arbitrary manipulation of broadband terahertz waves with flexible polarization shaping at the source has great potential in expanding numerous applications, such as imaging, information encryption, and all-optical coherent control of terahertz nonlinear phenomena. Topological insulators featuring unique spinmomentum-locked surface state have already exhibited very promising prospects in terahertz emission, detection, and modulation, which may lay a foundation for future on-chip topological insulator-based terahertz systems. However, polarization-shaped terahertz emitters based on topological insulators with an arbitrarily manipulated temporal evolution of the amplitude and the electric-field vector direction have not yet been explored. We systematically investigated the terahertz radiation from topological insulator Bi 2 Te 3 nanofilms driven by femtosecond laser pulses and successfully realized the generation of efficient chiral terahertz waves with controllable chirality, ellipticity, and principal axis. The convenient engineering of the chiral terahertz waves was interpreted by a photogalvanic effect (PGE)-induced photocurrent, while the linearly polarized terahertz waves originated from linear PGE-induced shift currents. Our work not only provides further understanding of femtosecond coherent control of ultrafast spin currents but also describes an effective way to generate spin-polarized terahertz waves at the source.

Extreme terahertz (THz) science and technologies, the next disruptive frontier in nonlinear optics, provide multifaceted capabilities for exploring strong light‐matter interactions in a variety of physical systems. However, current techniques involve the need for an extremely high‐field free space THz source that is difficult to generate and has limited investigations to a rather weak and linear regime of light‐matter interactions. Therefore, new approaches are being sought for the tight confinement of THz waves that can induce nonlinear effects. Here, a nonlinear “tera‐nano” metasurface is demonstrated exhibiting extremely large THz nonlinearity and sensitive self‐modulation of resonances at moderate incident THz field strengths. A record deep‐subwavelength (≈λ/33 000) confinement of strongly enhanced (≈3200) THz field in a nano‐gap (15 nm) exhibits remarkable THz field‐tailored nonlinearity. Further, ultrafast injection of photocarriers reveals a competition between nonlinear THz field‐induced intervalley scattering and optically driven interband excitations. The results on “tera‐nano” metasurfaces enable a novel platform to realize enhanced nonlinear nano/micro composites for field‐sensitive extreme THz nonlinear applications without the need for intense THz light sources.

Recent advances in terahertz (THz) absorbing materials and technology show futuristic potentials for practical applications in THz radars and telecommunications, stealth and shielding. However, the lack of versatile materials naturally working in this specific electromagnetic wave region with simultaneously featuring high absorption efficiencies, ultrabroad bandwidths, low‐costs, good stabilities, and flexibilities, is impeding the proliferation of real THz disruptive applications. Here a kind of flexible structure material, 3D nickel (Ni) skeleton, fabricated from an electroplating sintering method with irregular pore distribution makes possible the successful realization of a highly absorbing response for ultrabroadband THz waves due to the effective combination of both material and structural absorption mechanisms. 3D Ni skeletons with 90 ppi nonuniform pore‐size ranges enable >99% absorption capabilities in the frequency range of 0.5–2.0 THz independent on both the THz incidence angles and polarizations. Experimental validation of THz shielding implemented on both 100 GHz and 4.3 THz video imaging systems corroborates the highly efficient absorbing with frequency expansibility. Such capabilities are further verified on millimeter‐wave security checkers for 32–36 GHz. This prototypical demonstration lays the foundation for the next‐generation THz absorbing technology, accelerating advanced THz technologies toward practical applications.