Highly tunable efficient second-harmonic generation in a lithium niobate nanophotonic waveguide

TLDR

Highly tunable coherent light generation is essential for many photonic applications, yet conventional SHG trades conversion efficiency for wavelength tunability; recent advances in integrated lithium niobate enable large tuning while preserving high efficiency. The study demonstrates on‑chip SHG that simultaneously delivers large tunability and high conversion efficiency in a single device. The device exploits lithium niobate’s strong thermo‑optic birefringence to flexibly tune type‑I inter‑modal phase matching via temperature. Experimentally, the 8‑mm LN waveguide achieves a 0.84 nm/K tuning slope for a telecom‑band pump and a 4.7 % W⁻¹ conversion efficiency, demonstrating promising on‑chip, highly tunable visible‑light generation that leverages mature telecom laser technology.

Abstract

Highly-tunable coherent light generation is crucial for many important photonic applications. Second-harmonic generation (SHG) is a dominant approach for this purpose, which, however, exhibits a trade-off between the conversion efficiency and the wavelength tunability in a conventional nonlinear platform. Recent development of the integrated lithium niobate (LN) technology makes it possible to achieve a large wavelength tuning while maintaining a high conversion efficiency. Here we report on-chip SHG that simultaneously achieves a large tunability and a high conversion efficiency inside a single device. We utilize the unique strong thermo-optic birefringence of LN to achieve flexible temperature tuning of type-I inter-modal phase matching. We experimentally demonstrate spectral tuning with a tuning slope of 0.84 nm/K for a telecom-band pump, and a nonlinear conversion efficiency of 4.7% W$^{-1}$, in a LN nanophotonic waveguide only 8~mm long. Our device shows great promise for efficient on-chip wavelength conversion to produce highly-tunable coherent visible light for broad applications, while taking advantage of the mature and cost-effective telecom laser technology.