Second Harmonic Generation from Grating-Coupled Hybrid Plasmon-Phonon Polaritons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates enhancement of mid-infrared second-harmonic generation via grating-coupled hybrid plasmon-phonon polaritons on 6H-SiC, exploring hybridization effects and design considerations for improved nonlinear optical responses.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental observation of SHG enhancement from grating-coupled hybrid plasmon-phonon polaritons and discusses the effects of hybridization and geometry on SHG efficiency.

Findings

Hybridization modifies polariton dispersion.

SHG enhancement observed but with low yield.

Design considerations for optimizing polariton-enhanced SHG.

Abstract

Polaritons can provide strong optical field enhancement allowing to boost light-matter interaction. Here, we experimentally observe enhancement of mid-infrared second-harmonic generation (SHG) using grating-coupled surface phonon polaritons of the 6H-SiC surface. In our experiment, we measure the SHG along the polariton dispersion by changing the incidence angle of the excitation beam. We observe hybridization between the propagating surface phonon polaritons and localized plasmon resonances in the gold grating, evidenced by the modification of the polariton dispersion as we change the area ratio of grating and substrate. Design options for engineering the plasmon-phonon polariton hybridization are discussed. Overall, we find a rather low yield of polariton-enhanced SHG in this geometry compared to prism-coupling and nanostructures, and discuss possible origins.