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Three-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal in ferroelectric barium calcium titanate

Nature Photonics volume 12, pages 591–595 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

The performance of many optical devices based on frequency conversion critically depends on spatial modulation of the nonlinear optical response of materials. This modulation ensures efficient energy exchange between optical waves at different frequencies via quasi-phase matching1. In general, quasi-phase-matching structures, also known as nonlinear photonic crystals2,3,4, offer a variety of properties and functionalities that cannot be obtained in uniform nonlinear crystals5,6,7,8,9. So far, nonlinear photonic crystals have been restricted to one- or two-dimensional geometries owing to a lack of fabrication technologies capable of three-dimensional (3D) nonlinearity engineering. Here, we provide an experimental example of a 3D nonlinear photonic crystal, fabricated in ferroelectric barium calcium titanate, by applying an ultrafast light domain inversion approach. The resulting full flexibility of 3D nonlinearity modulation enables phase matching of nonlinear processes along an arbitrary direction, thereby removing constraints imposed by low-dimensional structures.

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Fig. 1: NPCs and their corresponding reciprocal lattice vectors.
Fig. 2: Ferroelectric domain inversion with ultrafast light in the BCT crystal.
Fig. 3: SHG in an all optically fabricated 3D NPC.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council and Qatar National Research Fund (grant no. NPRP 8-246-1-060). T.X. acknowledges financial support from the China Scholarship Council in 2016 (no. 201606220151). We acknowledge support from the ANU Centre for Advanced Microscopy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laser Physics Center, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Tianxiang Xu, Xin Chen, Shan Liu, Yan Sheng & Wieslaw Krolikowski

  2. State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials and Institute of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, China

    Tianxiang Xu, Haohai Yu, Huaijin Zhang & Jiyang Wang

  3. Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

    Krzysztof Switkowski

  4. Science Program, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar

    Krzysztof Switkowski & Wieslaw Krolikowski

  5. Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany

    Kaloian Koynov

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  1. Tianxiang Xu
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  3. Xin Chen
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  4. Shan Liu
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Contributions

Y.S. and W.K. conceived and coordinated the research project. All authors made significant contributions to the experiments, analysis of the data and writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yan Sheng or Wieslaw Krolikowski.

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Supplementary Information

Additional information on ferroelectric barium calcium titanate and the quasi-phase-matched second-harmonic generation process.

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Xu, T., Switkowski, K., Chen, X. et al. Three-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal in ferroelectric barium calcium titanate. Nature Photon 12, 591–595 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-018-0225-1

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