Efficient Optical Frequency Conversion Research Articles

Microcavity induced by a few-layer GaSe crystal on a silicon photonic crystal waveguide for efficient optical frequency conversion.

We demonstrate the post-induction of high-quality microcavities on a silicon photonic crystal (PC) waveguide by integrating a few-layer GaSe crystal, which promises efficient on-chip optical frequency conversions. The integration of GaSe shifts the dispersion bands of the PC waveguide mode into the bandgap, resulting in localized modes confined by the bare PC waveguides. Thanks to the small contrast of refractive index at the boundaries of the microcavity, it is reliable to obtain quality factors exceeding 104. With the enhanced light-GaSe interaction by the microcavity modes and GaSe's high second-order nonlinearity, remarkable second-harmonic generation (SHG) and sum-frequency generation (SFG) are achieved with continuous-wave (CW) lasers.

4H-silicon-carbide-on-insulator for integrated quantum and nonlinear photonics

Optical quantum information processing will require highly efficient photonic circuits to connect quantum nodes on-chip and across long distances. This entails the efficient integration of optically addressable qubits into photonic circuits, as well as quantum frequency conversion to the telecommunications band. 4H-silicon carbide (4H-SiC) offers unique potential for on-chip quantum photonics, as it hosts a variety of promising colour centres and has a strong second-order optical nonlinearity. Here, we demonstrate within a single, monolithic platform the strong enhancement of emission from a colour centre and efficient optical frequency conversion. We develop a fabrication process for thin films of 4H-SiC, which are compatible with industry-standard, CMOS nanofabrication. This work provides a viable route towards industry-compatible, scalable colour-centre-based quantum technologies, including the monolithic generation and frequency conversion of quantum light on-chip. Monolithic photonics devices based on SiC are fabricated by a wafer bonding and thinning technique. The strong enhancement of single-photon emission from a colour centre and optical frequency conversion with an efficiency of 360% W−1 are demonstrated.

Resonant, broadband, and highly efficient optical frequency conversion in semiconductor nanowire gratings at visible and UV wavelengths

Using a hydrodynamic approach we examine bulk- and surface-induced second and third harmonic generation from semiconductor nanowire gratings having a resonant nonlinearity in the absorption region. We demonstrate resonant, broadband and highly efficient optical frequency conversion: contrary to conventional wisdom, we show that harmonic generation can take full advantage of resonant nonlinearities in a spectral range where nonlinear optical coefficients are boosted well beyond what is achievable in the transparent, long-wavelength, non-resonant regime. Using femtosecond pulses with approximately 500 MW/cm2 peak power density, we predict third harmonic conversion efficiencies of approximately 1% in a silicon nanowire array, at nearly any desired UV or visible wavelength, including the range of negative dielectric constant. We also predict surface second harmonic conversion efficiencies of order 0.01%, depending on the electronic effective mass, bistable behavior of the signals as a result of a reshaped resonance, and the onset fifth order nonlinear effects. These remarkable findings, arising from the combined effects of nonlinear resonance dispersion, field localization, and phase-locking, could significantly extend the operational spectral bandwidth of silicon photonics, and strongly suggest that neither linear absorption nor skin depth should be motivating factors to exclude either semiconductors or metals from the list of useful or practical nonlinear materials in any spectral range.

Second-harmonic generation using -quasi-phasematching in a GaAs whispering-gallery-mode microcavity

The crystal symmetry in materials such as GaAs can enable quasi-phasematching for efficient optical frequency conversion without poling, twinning or other engineered domain inversions. symmetry means that a 90° rotation is equivalent to a crystallographic inversion. Therefore, when light circulates about the axis, as in GaAs whispering-gallery-mode microdisks, it encounters effective domain inversions that can produce quasi-phasematching. Microdisk resonators also offer resonant field enhancement, resulting in highly efficient frequency conversion in micrometre-scale volumes. These devices can be integrated in photonic circuits as compact frequency convertors, sources of radiation or entangled photons. Here we present the first experimental observation of second-harmonic generation in a whispering-gallery-mode microcavity utilizing -quasi-phasematching. We use a tapered fibre to couple into the 5-μm diameter microdisk resonator, resulting in a normalized conversion efficiency η≈5 × 10−5 mW−1. Simulations indicate that when accounting for fibre-cavity scattering, the normalized conversion efficiency is η≈3 × 10−3 mW−1.

Nonlinear Optical Bioinspired Peptide Nanostructures

A nonlinear optical effect of a second harmonic generation (SHG) was first observed in quartz and then found in many inorganic materials that have an asymmetric crystalline structure. Second‐order nonlinear responses were also found in organic and biomaterials and are exploited for fundamental studies of helical and chiral biological molecules, such as proteins and amyloid fibrils. Another class of biomaterials is man‐made bioinspired nanostructures, which are composed of chemically synthesized biomolecules and are self‐assembled into supramolecular nanofibrils. Most of these materials have an asymmetric crystalline structure and possess ferroelectric and related phenomena. Here, the SHG effect is studied in bio‐organic peptide nanostructures of different morphologies and symmetries. These nanostructures are self‐assembled in different solvents from peptide precursors with a variable number of phenylalanine (F) amino acid units. A pronounced SHG response is detected in FFF‐nanobelts, FF‐nanotubes, and FFF‐nanospheres. SHG and Raman spectroscopy studies during phase transformation in FF‐nanotubes allow the definition of the intermolecular bonds responsible for SHG. Using two‐photon optical microscopy, orientational molecular ordering in aligned peptide supramolecular structures is found by adapting a generic model developed earlier for diverse biological protein fibrils. Efficient optical frequency conversion from NIR to green and blue light is demonstrated, as well as an effect of nonlinear optical waveguiding. These results suggest these bioinspired nanostructures as promising for a new generation of nonlinear optical nanomaterias, which can be integrated into nanophotonic devices.

Efficient Single-Photon Frequency Conversion Using a Sagnac Interferometer

We propose a scheme for efficient optical frequency conversion at the single-photon power level. The scheme exploits the quantum interference of single-photon states at a three-level quantum emitter coupled to a Sagnac interferometer. We show that this device can achieve single-photon frequency up- or down-conversion with near unity efficiency.

Low-Threshold Optical Parametric Oscillations in a Whispering Gallery Mode Resonator

In whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonator light is guided by continuous total internal reflection along a curved surface. Fabricating such resonators from an optically nonlinear material one takes advantage of their exceptionally high quality factors and small mode volumes to achieve extremely efficient optical frequency conversion. Our analysis of the phase-matching conditions for optical parametric down-conversion (PDC) in a spherical WGM resonator shows their direct relation to the sum rules for photons' angular momenta and predicts a very low parametric oscillation threshold. We realized such an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on naturally phase-matched PDC in lithium niobate. We demonstrated a single-mode, strongly nondegenerate OPO with a threshold of 6.7 μW and linewidth under 10 MHz. This work demonstrates the remarkable capabilities of WGM-based OPOs.

Towards integrated semiconductor optical parametric oscillators

Microelectronic grade semiconductors display excellent figure of merits for second-order optical nonlinearity effects. However, most of them are not birefringent and cannot be properly phase-matched for efficient optical frequency conversion. This paper describes the different phase-matching scenarios which are currently developed in different laboratories to solve this problem. If successful, this field of research will open the way to future complete integrated optical parametric oscillators.