Third-harmonic blue light generation from Kerr clustered combs and dispersive waves.

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Nonlinear Optics
• Microcavity Devices

Background:

• Whispering gallery mode (WGM) microcavities offer high quality factors for light confinement.
• Nonlinear optical processes enable frequency conversion of light.
• Generating specific wavelengths like blue light (438 nm) is crucial for various applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate deterministic generation of blue light emission at 438 nm.
• To achieve broad bandwidth frequency conversion using microcavity-based nonlinear optics.
• To explore micro-scale light sources and frequency converters for optical processing.

Main Methods:

• Engineered dispersion in a high-quality-factor whispering gallery mode microcavity.
• Utilized the third-harmonic generation process from an infrared pump source.
• Employed two approaches for broad bandwidth light generation: clustered comb and dispersive wave.
• Obtained a broad Kerr comb spanning a half-octave.

Main Results:

• Successfully generated deterministic blue light emission at 438 nm.
• Achieved broad bandwidth frequency conversion from 438 nm to 612 nm.
• Demonstrated the effectiveness of clustered comb and dispersive wave techniques for generating wide spectral bandwidths.

Conclusions:

• Engineered microcavity dispersion enables deterministic third-harmonic generation of blue light.
• Broad bandwidth Kerr combs are achievable using clustered comb and dispersive wave methods.
• This approach paves the way for developing compact, micro-scale light sources and frequency converters for optical processing.