Single CdTe Nanowire Optical Correlator for Femtojoule Pulses

On the basis of the transverse second harmonic generation (TSHG) in a highly nonlinear subwavelength-diameter CdTe nanowire, we demonstrate a single-nanowire optical correlator for femto-second pulse measurement with pulse energy down to femtojoule (fJ) level. Pulses to be measured were equally split and coupled into two ends of a suspending nanowire via tapered optical fibers. The couterpropagating pulses meet each other around the central area of the nanowire, and emit TSHG signal perpendicular to the axis of the nanowire. By transferring the spatial intensity profile of the transverse second harmonic (TSH) image into the time-domain temporal profile of the input pulses, we operate the nanowire as a miniaturized optical correlator. Benefitted from the high nonlinearity and the very small effective mode area of the waveguiding CdTe nanowire, the input energy of the single-nanowire correlator can go down to fJ-level (e.g., 2 fJ/pulse for 1064 nm 200 fs pulses). The miniature fJ-pulse correlator may find applications from low power on-chip optical communication, biophotonics to ultracompact laser spectroscopy.