Second Harmonic Generation from Critically Coupled Surface Phonon Polaritons

Abstract

Mid-infrared nanophotonics can be realized using sub-diffractional light localization and field enhancement with surface phonon polaritons in polar dielectric materials. We experimentally demonstrate second harmonic generation due to the optical field enhancement from critically coupled surface phonon polaritons at the 6H-SiC-air interface, employing an infrared free-electron laser for intense, tunable, and narrowband mid-infrared excitation. Critical coupling to the surface polaritons is achieved using a prism in the Otto geometry with adjustable width of the air gap, providing full control over the excitation conditions along the polariton dispersion. The calculated reflectivity and second harmonic spectra reproduce the full experimental data set with high accuracy, allowing for a quantification of the optical field enhancement. We also reveal the mechanism for low out-coupling efficiency of the second harmonic light in the Otto geometry. Perspectives on surface phonon polariton-based nonlinear sensing and nonlinear waveguide coupling are discussed.

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• Perspective: Phonon polaritons for infrared optoelectronics
• Second Harmonic Generation from Phononic Epsilon-Near-Zero Berreman Modes in Ultrathin Polar Crystal Films
• Layer-Resolved Absorption of Light in Arbitrarily Anisotropic Heterostructures
• Second harmonic generation from strongly coupled localized and propagating phonon-polariton modes
• Surface Polariton-Like s-Polarized Waveguide Modes in Switchable Dielectric Thin-Films on Polar Crystals
• Controlling Nanoscale Air-Gaps for Critically Coupled Surface Polaritons by Means of Non-Invasive White-Light Interferometry
• Layer-Resolved Resonance Intensity of Evanescent Polariton Modes in Anisotropic Multilayers
• Insights into hyperbolic phonon polaritons in hBN using Raman scattering from encapsulated transition metal dichalcogenide layers
• Second Harmonic Generation from Grating-Coupled Hybrid Plasmon-Phonon Polaritons