Proposal for Efficient Terahertz-Wave Difference Frequency Generation in an AlGaAs Photonic Crystal Waveguide

Author

Chen, Tao ; Sun, Junqiang ; Li, Linsen ; Tang, Jianguan

Author_Institution

Sch. of Optoelectron. Sci. & Eng., Huazhong Univ. of Sci. & Technol., Wuhan, China

Volume

30

Issue

13

fYear

2012

fDate

7/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2156

Lastpage

2162

Abstract

We design an AlGaAs-based terahertz photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) to achieve terahertz-wave difference frequency generation (DFG) from near-infrared light sources. The PCW structure provides a tight confinement of terahertz-wave field, resulting in a good mode field overlap of three waves. The unique phase matching condition between two pump waves and terahertz Bloch wave can be satisfied through choosing appropriate waveguide parameters and pump wavelengths. With the coupled-mode equations derived from modal theory for describing the light propagation, we simulate the continuous terahertz DFG process, and a high power-normalized conversion efficiency of 0.7632 × 10^-4 W ^-1 for 3 THz generation is obtained.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; optical waveguides; photonic crystals; terahertz waves; coupled-mode equations; light propagation; modal theory; near-infrared light sources; phase matching condition; photonic crystal waveguide; pump wavelengths; terahertz Bloch wave; terahertz-wave difference frequency generation; tight confinement; waveguide parameters; Absorption; Nonlinear optics; Optical frequency conversion; Optical pumping; Optical waveguides; Propagation losses; Difference frequency generation (DFG); photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs); semiconductors; terahertz wave;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2012.2192908

Filename

6177204