Design of a LiNbO(3) ribbon waveguide for efficient difference-frequency generation of terahertz wave in the collinear configuration

Direct generation of graphene plasmonic polaritons at THz frequencies via four wave mixing in the hybrid graphene sheets waveguides

A compact waveguide incorporating a high-index nano-ridge sandwiched between graphene sheets is proposed for the direct generation of graphene plasmonic polaritons (GSPs) via four wave mixing (FWM). The proposed waveguide supports GSP modes at the THz frequencies and photonic modes at the infrared wavelengths. Due to the strong confinement of coupled graphene sheets, the GSP modes concentrate in the high-index nano-ridge far below the diffraction limit, which improves integral overlap with the photonic modes and greatly facilitates the FWM process. To cope with the ultra-high effective refractive of the GSP modes, an alternative energy conservation diagram is selected for the degenerated FWM, which corresponds to one pump photon transfers its energy to two signal photons and one GSP photon. The single mode condition of the generated symmetric GSP modes is analyzed by the effective index method to suppress the undesired conversion. Due to the unique tunability of GSPs, the phase matching condition can be satisfied by tuning the chemical potential of the graphene sheets employing external gates. The FWM pumped at 1,550 nm with a peak power of 1 kW is theoretically investigated by solving the modified coupled mode equations. The generated GSP power reaches its maximum up to 67 W at a propagation distance of only 43.7 μm. The proposed waveguide have a great potential for integrated chip-scale GSP source.

Efficient terahertz-wave generation via four-wave mixing in silicon membrane waveguides

Terahertz (THz) wave generation via four-wave mixing (FWM) in silicon membrane waveguides is theoretically investigated with mid-infrared laser pulses. Compared with the conventional parametric amplification or wavelength conversion based on FWM in silicon waveguides, which needs a pump wavelength located in the anomalous group-velocity dispersion (GVD) regime to realize broad phase matching, the pump wavelength located in the normal GVD regime is required to realize collinear phase matching for the THz-wave generation via FWM. The pump wavelength and rib height of the silicon membrane waveguide can be tuned to obtain a broadband phase matching. Moreover, the conversion efficiency of the THz-wave generation is studied with different pump wavelengths and rib heights of the silicon membrane waveguides, and broadband THz-wave can be obtained with high efficiency exceeding 1%.

Forward and backward THz-wave difference frequency generations from a rectangular nonlinear waveguide

We report forward and backward THz-wave difference frequency generations at 197 and 469 μm from a PPLN rectangular crystal rod with an aperture of 0.5 (height in z) × 0.6 (width in y) mm(2) and a length of 25 mm in x. The crystal rod appears as a waveguide for the THz waves but as a bulk material for the optical mixing waves near 1.54 μm. We measured enhancement factors of 1.6 and 1.8 for the forward and backward THz-wave output powers, respectively, from the rectangular waveguide in comparison with those from a PPLN slab waveguide of the same length, thickness, and domain period under the same pump and signal intensity of 100 MW/cm(2).

AlxGa1-xAs nested waveguide heterostructures for continuously phase-matched terahertz difference frequency generation

We previously demonstrated a nested pair of single mode (pump/THz) waveguides which produced guided far-infrared (1.3 THz) light with a record power-normalized conversion efficiency of 1.3x10(-7) W(-1) by way of continuous phase matched difference frequency generation (DFG) [Opt. Express 16, 13296 (2008)]. Using the same numerical simulation tools we used to design and model this LiNbO(3)-based device, we show that a lattice-matched AlGaAs heterostructure, with its significantly lower absorption losses, can produce guided far-infrared light (3.5 THz) with a power-normalized conversion efficiency of 1.3 x 10(-5) W(-1) - some 100 times larger than achieved with the LiNbO(3) structure.

Enhancement of optics-to-THz conversion efficiency by metallic slot waveguides

A metallic slot waveguide, with a dielectric strip embedded within, is investigated for the purpose of enhancing the optics-to-THz conversion efficiency using the difference-frequency generation (DFG) process. To describe the frequency conversion process in such lossy waveguides, a fully-vectorial coupled-mode theory is developed. Using the coupled-mode theory, we outline the basic theoretical requirements for efficient frequency conversion, which include the needs to achieve large coupling coefficients, phase matching, and low propagation loss for both the optical and THz waves. Following these requirements, a metallic waveguide is designed by considering the trade-off between modal confinement and propagation loss. Our numerical calculation shows that the conversion efficiency in these waveguide structures can be more than one order of magnitude larger than what has been achieved using dielectric waveguides. Based on the distinct impact of the slot width on the optical and THz modal dispersion, we propose a two-step method to realize the phase matching for general pump wavelengths.

Continuously phase-matched terahertz difference frequency generation in an embedded-waveguide structure supporting only fundamental modes

We demonstrate an all-single mode structure which enables continuous phase matching of difference frequency generated THz light from the near-IR. This structure provides a long interaction length by way of well-confined collinear propagation of pumps and product without diffraction, resulting in high conversion efficiency. A LiNbO(3) version of this structure achieved a power-normalized conversion efficiency of 1.3 x 10(-7) W(-1)--some 23 times larger than the largest previously reported results.