Enhanced third-harmonic generation induced by nonlinear field resonances in plasmonic-graphene metasurfaces

Nonlinear metasurfaces offer new paradigm for boosting optical effect beyond limitations of conventional materials. In this work, we present an alternative way to produce pronounced third-harmonic generation (THG) based on nonlinear field resonances rather than linear field enhancement, which is a typical strategy for achieving a strong nonlinear response. By designing and studying a nonlinear plasmonic-graphene metasurface at terahertz regime with hybrid-guided modes and bound states in the continuum modes, it is found that a THG with a narrow bandwidth can be observed, thanks to the strong resonance generated between a weak THG field and these modes. Such strong nonlinear field resonance greatly enhances the photon-photon interactions, thus resulting in a large effective nonlinear coefficient of the whole system. This finding provides new opportunity for studying nonlinear optical metasurfaces.