No Arabic abstract
Silica-based optical fibers are a workhorse of nonlinear optics. They have been used to demonstrate nonlinear phenomena such as solitons and self-phase modulation. Since the introduction of the photonic crystal fiber, they have found many exciting applications, such as supercontinuum white light sources and third-harmonic generation, among others. They stand out by their low loss, large interaction length, and the ability to engineer its dispersive properties, which compensate for the small chi(3) nonlinear coefficient. However, they have one fundamental limitation: due to the amorphous nature of silica, they do not exhibit second-order nonlinearity, except for minor contributions from surfaces. Here, we demonstrate significant second-harmonic generation in functionalized optical fibers with a monolayer of highly nonlinear MoS2 deposited on the fiber guiding core. The demonstration is carried out in a 3.5 mm short piece of exposed core fiber, which was functionalized in a scalable process CVD-based process, without a manual transfer step. This approach is scalable and can be generalized to other transition metal dichalcogenides and other waveguide systems. We achieve an enhancement of more than 1000x over a reference sample of equal length. Our simple proof-of-principle demonstration does not rely on either phase matching to fundamental modes, or ordered growth of monolayer crystals, suggesting that pathways for further improvement are within reach. Our results do not just demonstrate a new path towards efficient in-fiber SHG-sources, instead, they establish a platform with a new route to chi(2)-based nonlinear fiber optics, optoelectronics, and photonics platforms, integrated optical architectures, and active fiber networks.
We proposed a mechanism to generate giant anisotropic second harmonic nonlinear response via double resonance effect, achieved through electronic bandstructure engineering. The ideal band setup would be a triplet of nested bands separated by the fundamental resonance energy, $hbaromega$. We demonstrate theoretically that the proposed phenomenon can be realized in bilayer SnS by band tuning with perpendicular electrical bias, which maximizes the second harmonic susceptibility by several orders of magnitude. Moreover, the tunability of the polarization anisotropy can be useful for realizing novel polarization-sensitive devices.
The two-dimensional ferroelectrics GeS, GeSe, SnS and SnSe are expected to have large spontaneous in-plane electric polarization and enhanced shift-current response. Using density functional methods, we show that these materials also exhibit the largest effective second harmonic generation reported so far. It can reach magnitudes up to $10$ nm/V which is about an order of magnitude larger than that of prototypical GaAs. To rationalize this result we model the optical response with a simple one-dimensional two-band model along the spontaneous polarization direction. Within this model the second-harmonic generation tensor is proportional to the shift-current response tensor. The large shift current and second harmonic responses of GeS, GeSe, SnS and SnSe make them promising non-linear materials for optoelectronic applications.
Efficient frequency conversion techniques are crucial to the development of plasmonic metasurfaces for information processing and signal modulation. In principle, nanoscale electric-field confinement in nonlinear materials enables higher harmonic conversion efficiencies per unit volume than those attainable in bulk materials. Here we demonstrate efficient second-harmonic generation (SHG) in a serrated nanogap plasmonic geometry that generates steep electric field gradients on a dielectric metasurface. An ultrafast pump is used to control plasmon-induced electric fields in a thin-film material with inversion symmetry that, without plasmonic enhancement, does not exhibit an an even-order nonlinear optical response. The temporal evolution of the plasmonic near-field is characterized with ~100as resolution using a novel nonlinear interferometric technique. The ability to manipulate nonlinear signals in a metamaterial geometry as demonstrated here is indispensable both to understanding the ultrafast nonlinear response of nanoscale materials, and to producing active, optically reconfigurable plasmonic devices
Light modulation is an essential operation in photonics and optoelectronics. With existing and emerging technologies increasingly demanding compact, efficient, fast and broadband optical modulators, high-performance light modulation solutions are becoming indispensable. The recent realization that two-dimensional layered materials could modulate light with superior performance has prompted intense research and significant advances, paving the way for realistic applications. In this review, we cover the state-of-the-art of optical modulators based on two-dimensional layered materials including graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides and black phosphorus. We discuss recent advances employing hybrid structures, such as two-dimensional heterostructures, plasmonic structures, and silicon/fibre integrated structures. We also take a look at future perspectives and discuss the potential of yet relatively unexplored mechanisms such as magneto-optic and acousto-optic modulation.
Dielectric metasurfaces have shown prominent applications in nonlinear optics due to strong field enhancement and low dissipation losses at the nanoscale. Chalcogenide glasses are one of the promising materials for the observation of nonlinear effects due to their high intrinsic nonlinearities. Here, we demonstrate, experimentally and theoretically, that significant second harmonic generation can be obtained within amorphous chalcogenide based metasurfaces by relying on the coupling between lattice and particle resonances. We further show that the high quality factor resonance at the origin of the second harmonic generation can be tuned over a wide wavelength range using a simple and versatile fabrication approach. The measured second harmonic intensity is orders of magnitude higher than that from a deposited chalcogenide film, and more than three orders of magnitude higher than conventional plasmonic and Silicon-based structures. Fabricated via a simple and scalable technique, these all-dielectric architectures are ideal candidates for the design of flat non-linear optical components on flexible substrates.