Second harmonic generation with 48% conversion efficiency from cavity polygon modes in a monocrystalline lithium niobate microdisk resonator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates ultra-efficient second harmonic generation in a monocrystalline lithium niobate microdisk resonator, achieving a record 48% conversion efficiency by optimizing polygon modes and mode overlap.

Contribution

First demonstration of high-efficiency SHG using polygon modes in monocrystalline lithium niobate microdisks, maximizing nonlinear coefficient utilization without domain inversion.

Findings

Achieved 48.08% SHG conversion efficiency.

Polygon modes exhibit ultrahigh Q factors (~3.86×10^7).

High modal overlap (~80%) enhances nonlinear conversion.

Abstract

Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) based optical microresonators offer large nonlinear coefficient d_33 and high light-wave confinement, allowing highly efficient second-order optical nonlinear frequency conversion. Here, we achieved ultra-efficiency second harmonic generation (SHG) from high-Q polygon modes by maximizing the utilization of the highest nonlinear coefficient d_33 in a monocrystalline X-cut TFLN microdisk resonator for the first time. The polygon modes are designed and formed with two parallel sides perpendicular to the optical axis of the lithium niobate crystal by introducing weak perturbations into the microdisk of a tapered fiber, which maximizes the utilization of d_33. The polygon modes exhibit ultrahigh intrinsic Q factors of ~3.86X10(7), due to the fact that polygon modes are located far from the relatively rough sidewall of the microdisk. Moreover, the pump and second harmonic polygon modes share high modal overlap factor of ~80%. Consequently, SHG from cavity polygon modes with absolute conversion efficiency as high as 48.08% was realized at an on-chip pump level of only 4.599 mW without fine domain structures, surpassing the best results (23% and 30%) reported in other two domain-inversion-free phase matching schemes and even approaching the record (52%) in PPLN microresonators.