Metasurface optical device boosts nonlinear frequency conversion
Nanostructured device efficiently transforms light into different frequencies – including those at technologically important near-infrared wavelengths The post Metasurface optical device boosts nonlinear frequency conversion appeared first on Physics World .
Scientists in Austria and the United States have developed a device capable of efficiently converting light into different frequencies, including near-infrared wavelengths, using a combination of a band-structure engineered multi-quantum-well heterostructure and a metasurface. This technological advance could improve the efficiency and compactness of components for telecommunications, quantum information transfer, and other photonics technologies.
Nonlinear frequency conversion, which generates light of a different frequency than the incident light, is widely used in various photonics applications, such as ultrafast signal processing, broadband and pulsed light sources, and high-speed light modulation. Second-harmonic generation is a common type of frequency conversion, where two input photons combine to produce one photon with twice the energy.
Efficient devices for this conversion typically require high electric field strengths and materials that respond strongly to intense electromagnetic fields. The new device, created by physicists at the University of Texas at Austin and TU Graz, uses asymmetrically coupled multi-quantum wells and a metasurface to enhance nonlinear electron oscillations and increase the interaction between light waves.
This novel approach allows for significant improvements in the intensity of light within the structure, leading to higher effective nonlinear conversion rates compared to conventional materials.
Written by urgent.news from Physics World's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
