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An All-Dielectric Matasurface as a Broadband Optical Frequency Mixer

A GaAs-based dielectric metasurface has been demonstrated as an optical frequency mixer that concurrently generates eleven new frequencies spanning the ultraviolet to near-infrared. The even and odd order nonlinearities of GaAs enable the observation of second-harmonic, third-harmonic, and fourth-harmonic generation, sum-frequency generation, two-photon absorption-induced photoluminescence, four-wave mixing and six-wave mixing. The simultaneous occurrence of these seven nonlinear processes is assisted by the combined effects of strong intrinsic material nonlinearities, enhanced electromagnetic fields, and relaxed phase-matching requirements. Such ultracompact optical mixers may enable a plethora of applications in biology, chemistry, sensing, communications, and quantum optics.

References

- S. Liu et al., Nature Commun. 9, 2507(2018)
- Source: Sci. Adv., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat2355