What is it about?
One of the most rapidly growing applications of nonlinear optics is the generation of ultra-broadband (octave-spanning) light sources using a process known as self-phase modulation. This work shows that emerging platforms for integrated photonics can access previously undiscovered dynamical regimes that generate broadband light with far less power than traditional approaches based on self-phase modulation.
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Why is it important?
The experimental and theoretical results shown here are the first to establish a new approach to spectral broadening based on dynamics that are unique to second-order nonlinear photonics. In addition to providing a simple heuristic model for these new operating regimes, this paper also explicates concise design rules for users who are interested in realizing octave-spanning coherent sources. We show here that devices based on second-order nonlinearities can operate with orders of magnitude less power than the state of the art, are robust with respect to typical input errors (such as chirp), and can enable drastically simplified nonlinear (f-2f) interferometers.
Perspectives
I hope that these techniques start finding use in the frequency comb community, where many applications would be greatly simplified by having compact low-power f-2f interferometers. In addition, I hope this article spurs greater interest in the dynamics of second-order nonlinear photonics. These systems are extraordinarily rich, and there are likely many yet-undiscovered dynamical processes that are both exciting and useful.
Marc Jankowski
Stanford University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Supercontinuum generation by saturated second-order nonlinear interactions, APL Photonics, November 2023, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0158926.
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