Transparency in nonlinear frequency conversion

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how broadband transparency in nonlinear optical media can be achieved through spatial tailoring of the susceptibility and pump power tuning, preventing frequency conversion despite phase matching.

Contribution

It introduces a method to realize broadband transparency in nonlinear media by spatially apodizing the susceptibility and tuning pump power, avoiding frequency conversion.

Findings

Broadband transparency occurs without frequency conversion despite phase matching.

Spatial apodization of susceptibility enables transparency in nonlinear media.

Nonlinear medium remains visible due to effective dispersion effects.

Abstract

Suppression of wave scattering and the realization of transparency effects in engineered optical media and surfaces have attracted great attention in the past recent years. In this work the problem of transparency is considered for optical wave propagation in a nonlinear dielectric medium with second-order $\chi^{(2)}$ susceptibility. Because of nonlinear interaction, a reference signal wave at carrier frequency $\omega_1$ can exchange power, thus being amplified or attenuated,when phase matching conditions are satisfied and frequency conversion takes place. Therefore, rather generally the medium is not transparent to the signal wave because of 'scattering' in the frequency domain. Here we show that broadband transparency, corresponding to the full absence of frequency conversion in spite of phase matching, can be observed for the signal wave in the process of sum frequency generation whenever the effective susceptibility $\chi^{(2)}$ along the nonlinear medium is tailored following a suitable spatial apodization profile and the power level of the pump wave is properly tuned. While broadband transparency is observed under such conditions, the nonlinear medium is not invisible owing to an additional effective dispersion for the signal wave introduced by the nonlinear interaction.