Second-harmonic generation from hyperbolic plasmonic nanorod metamaterial slab

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that hyperbolic plasmonic metamaterials can significantly enhance second-harmonic generation across a broad spectrum, surpassing traditional materials and enabling tunable frequency doubling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using anisotropic hyperbolic metamaterials to achieve broadband enhancement of second-harmonic generation, overcoming classical phase matching limitations.

Findings

Up to 100-fold increase in second-harmonic intensity.

Broadband enhancement for TM and TE polarizations.

Potential for tunable frequency-doubling devices.

Abstract

Hyperbolic plasmonic metamaterials provide numerous opportunities for designing unusual linear and nonlinear optical properties. We show that the modal overlap of fundamental and second-harmonic light in an anisotropic plasmonic metamaterial slab results in the broadband enhancement of radiated second-harmonic intensity by up to 2 orders of magnitudes for TM- and TE-polarized fundamental light, compared to a smooth Au film under TM-polarised illumination. The results open up possibilities to design tuneable frequency-doubling metamaterial with the goal to overcome limitations associated with classical phase matching conditions in thick nonlinear crystals.