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1. Efficient and highly tunable second-harmonic generation in Z-cut periodically poled lithium niobate nanowaveguides

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.393445  

   Chen, Jia-Yang; Tang, Chao; Ma, Zhao-Hui; Li, Zhan; Meng_Sua, Yong; Huang, Yu-Ping (July 2020, Optics Letters)

   Thin-film lithium-niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) has emerged as a superior integrated-photonics platform for linear, nonlinear, and electro-optics. Here we combine quasi-phase-matching, dispersion engineering, and tight mode confinement to realize nonlinear parametric processes with both high efficiency and wide wavelength tunability. On a millimeter-long, Z-cut LNOI waveguide, we demonstrate efficient ( $1900\pm <\#comment/>500\mathrm{\%<\#comment/>}{\mathrm{W}}^{-<\#comment/>1}{\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^{-<\#comment/>2}$) and highly tunable ( $-<\#comment/>1.71\mathrm{n}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{K}$) second-harmonic generation from 1530 to 1583 nm by type-0 quasi-phase-matching. Our technique is applicable to optical harmonic generation, quantum light sources, frequency conversion, and many other photonic information processes across visible to mid-IR spectral bands. 

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2. Guided-mode resonances in flexible 2D terahertz photonic crystals

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.388761  

   Kyaw, Chan; Yahiaoui, Riad; Chase, Zizwe_A; Tran, Viet; Baydin, Andrey; Tay, Fuyang; Kono, Junichiro; Manjappa, Manukumara; Singh, Ranjan; Abeysinghe, Don_C; et al (May 2020, Optica)

   In terahertz (THz) photonics, there is an ongoing effort to develop thin, compact devices such as dielectric photonic crystal (PhC) slabs with desirable light–matter interactions. However, previous works in THz PhC slabs have been limited to rigid substrates with thicknesses $\sim <\#comment/>100\mathrm{s}$of micrometers. Dielectric PhC slabs have been shown to possess in-plane modes that are excited by external radiation to produce sharp guided-mode resonances with minimal absorption for applications in sensors, optics, and lasers. Here we confirm the existence of guided resonances in a membrane-type THz PhC slab with subwavelength ( ${\mathrm{\lambda <\#comment/>}}_0/6-<\#comment/>{\mathrm{\lambda <\#comment/>}}_0/12$) thicknesses of flexible dielectric polyimide films. The transmittance of the guided resonances was measured for different structural parameters of the unit cell. Furthermore, we exploited the flexibility of the samples to modulate the guided modes for a bend angle of $\mathrm{\theta <\#comment/>}\ge <\#comment/>5^{\circ <\#comment/>}$, confirmed experimentally by the suppression of these modes. The mechanical flexibility of the device allows for an additional degree of freedom in system design for high-speed communications, soft wearable photonics, and implantable medical devices. 

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3. Ultralow-threshold thin-film lithium niobate optical parametric oscillator

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.418984  

   Lu, Juanjuan; Al_Sayem, Ayed; Gong, Zheng; Surya, Joshua_B; Zou, Chang-Ling; Tang, Hong_X (April 2021, Optica)

   Materials with strong second-order ( ${\mathrm{\chi <\#comment/>}}^{\left(2\right)}$) optical nonlinearity, especially lithium niobate, play a critical role in building optical parametric oscillators (OPOs). However, chip-scale integration of low-loss ${\mathrm{\chi <\#comment/>}}^{\left(2\right)}$materials remains challenging and limits the threshold power of on-chip ${\mathrm{\chi <\#comment/>}}^{\left(2\right)}$OPO. Here we report an on-chip lithium niobate optical parametric oscillator at the telecom wavelengths using a quasi-phase-matched, high-quality microring resonator, whose threshold power ( $\sim <\#comment/>30\text{µ<\#comment/>}\mathrm{W}$) is 400 times lower than that in previous ${\mathrm{\chi <\#comment/>}}^{\left(2\right)}$integrated photonics platforms. An on-chip power conversion efficiency of 11% is obtained from pump to signal and idler fields at a pump power of 93 µW. The OPO wavelength tuning is achieved by varying the pump frequency and chip temperature. With the lowest power threshold among all on-chip OPOs demonstrated so far, as well as advantages including high conversion efficiency, flexibility in quasi-phase-matching, and device scalability, the thin-film lithium niobate OPO opens new opportunities for chip-based tunable classical and quantum light sources and provides a potential platform for realizing photonic neural networks. 

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4. Universal parameter to describe the reduction of refraction effects in the scattering of absorbing spheres

   https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.394401  

   Maughan, Justin_B; Sorensen, Christopher_M (August 2020, Journal of the Optical Society of America A)

   The scattered intensity from large spheres with a real part of the refractive index of $n=1.33,1.5,2.0$is investigated as the radius $R$and an imaginary part of the refractive index $\mathrm{\kappa <\#comment/>}$are varied. It is shown that the product of $\mathrm{\kappa <\#comment/>}$and the size parameter $kR$, $\mathrm{\kappa <\#comment/>}\text{kR}$, is a universal parameter describing the quenching of the refraction phenomenon of the scattered light: the refraction hump, the generalized rainbows, and the glory. The physical reason for this is that $\mathrm{\kappa <\#comment/>}\text{kR}$is the inverse of the relative skin depth of light penetration into the sphere, which is demonstrated by calculations of the internal fields that darken universally as $\mathrm{\kappa <\#comment/>}\text{kR}$increases. 

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5. Ultra-high extinction ratio polarization beam splitter with extreme skin-depth waveguide

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.420824  

   Ahmed, Syed_Z; Ahmed, Ishtiaque; Mia, Md_Borhan; Jaidye, Nafiz; Kim, Sangsik (April 2021, Optics Letters)

   In this Letter, we present a high extinction ratio and compact on-chip polarization beam splitter (PBS), based on an extreme skin-depth (eskid) waveguide. Subwavelength-scale gratings form an effectively anisotropic metamaterial cladding and introduce a large birefringence. The anisotropic dielectric perturbation of the metamaterial cladding suppresses the TE polarization extinction via exceptional coupling, while the large birefringence efficiently cross-couples the TM mode, thus reducing the coupling length. We demonstrated the eskid-PBS on a silicon-on-insulator platform and achieved an ultra-high extinction ratio PBS ( $\approx <\#comment/>60\mathrm{d}\mathrm{B}$for TE and $\approx <\#comment/>48\mathrm{d}\mathrm{B}$for TM) with a compact coupling length ( $\approx <\#comment/>14.5\text{µ<\#comment/>}\mathrm{m}$). The insertion loss is also negligible ( $<<\#comment/>0.6\mathrm{d}\mathrm{B}$). The bandwidth is $><\#comment/>80$(30) nm for the TE (TM) extinction ratio $><\#comment/>20\mathrm{d}\mathrm{B}$. Our ultra-high extinction ratio PBS is crucial in implementing efficient polarization diversity circuits, especially where a high degree of polarization distinguishability is necessary, such as photonic quantum information processing. 

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