Plasmon-induced enhancement of nonlinear optical processes in a double-resonant metallic nanostructure grating

M.L. Noordam, J. Hernandez-Rueda, L.Y. Talsma, L. Kuipers

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Nanostructured gratings in a metal surface can highly enhance nonlinear optical processes. The geometrical parameters that characterize a grating can be optimized to achieve intense near-fields, which in turn enhance the nonlinear optical signals. For a nonlinear process that involves multiple frequencies, like four-wave mixing (FWM), the optimization of grating parameters necessary to enhance the radiation in-coupling for both frequencies is not trivial. Here, we propose, compute, and experimentally demonstrate a grating design that is resonant to two excitation frequencies and thus enhances the frequency mixing processes more efficiently. Second- and third-order nonlinear mechanisms are studied using two spatially and temporally overlapped laser pulses with different frequencies. Using our grating design, we achieve an unprecedented nonlinear FWM enhancement factor of 7 × 10 3.
Original languageEnglish
Article number101101
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume116
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Mar 2020
Externally publishedYes

Funding

We thank Thomas Bauer and Irina Komen for their assistance in the fabrication of nanostructured gold films. This work is part of the research program of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The authors acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant No. 340438-CONSTANS).

FundersFunder number
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
European Research Council340438-CONSTANS
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

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