Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Stockholm, Sweden, Aug.

12-15, 2013 1459

Frequency Multiplier Based on Nonlinear Defective Photonic

Crystal
Yi Dai1 , Shao-Bin Liu1 , Xiang-Kun Kong1, 2 , Hai-Feng Zhang1 ,
Hui-Chao Zhao1 , and Chen Chen1
1

College of Electronic and Information Engineering

Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
2
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Meteorological Observation and Information Processing
Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China

Abstract This paper presents a proposal of taking nonlinear material as the structural defects
in one-dimensional photonic crystals. The performance of this structure is simulated by using
finite-difference time-domain method and transfer matrix method. The simulation results show
that the investigated structure can work as frequency multiplier. In this paper, we introduce
nonlinear defective photonic crystals in order to enhance the second harmonic wave and achieve
relatively high second harmonic conversion efficiency. By adjusting the parameters of the defective
photonic crystals, the position of the defect modes overlap in the position of the fundamental
wave (FW = 1064 nm) and the harmonic wave (SH = 532 nm).
1. INTRODUCTION

Photonic crystals (PCs) [13] have gained worldwide interest due to their unique electromagnetic
properties and potential applications [4, 5] in the last two decades. PCs are artificially fabricated
periodic structure in which the dielectric constant varies periodically in one, two, or three spatial
directions. They have many novel physical properties, which provide a good way to control the
propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves due to the existence of photonic band-gaps (PBG). The
PBG means that the propagation of EM waves of certain frequencies is forbidden. When a single
defect layer is introduced into the PCs, defect mode will appear in PBG and such defect modes is
also periodic. Nonlinear optics [6] describes the behavior of light in nonlinear material, which the
polarization of the material responds nonlinearly to the electric field of the light. Typically, laser
light is sufficiently intense to modify the optical properties of a material system. Essentially, almost
all the material can have nonlinear optical response in case of intense light. Researchers have been
made many efforts to enhance the second-order harmonic generation of nonlinear materials [7
11]. When the nonlinear material is introduced to the defective PCs, nonlinear processes, such
as harmonic generation, optical bistability [12] will emerge. Second harmonic generation (SHG)
occurs as a result of the part of the atomic response that scales quadratically with the strength of
the applied optical field. Shi et al. [9] demonstrated the great enhancement of SHG in the defective
PCs. Ren et al. [10] investigated giant enhancement of SHG in the finite PC with a single defect
and dual-localized modes. Dolgova et al. [11] verified the enhancement of SHG in PCs with single
and coupled microcavities.
In this paper, we construct the nonlinear photonic crystal structures [10] alternating between
nonlinear and linear layers. When we increase the thickness of the central nonlinear layer, SHG
can be enhanced greatly. By using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method [13] and the
transfer matrix method (TMM) [14], we simulated the electromagnetic waves propagating through
the proposed structures. Giant enhancement of SHG is predicted in numerical simulation. Such
a kind of structures can be expected as high-efficiency nonlinear photonic devices. We utilize the
investigated structure to make a frequency multiplier.
2. PHYSICAL MODELS

We consider a one-dimensional nonlinear PC created by alternating between nonlinear and linear

materials. Fig. 1(a) shows a finite perfect periodic PC. It is composed of alternately stacked NL layers surrounded with L medium, where N and L indicate the nonlinear and linear layers.
LiNbO3 crystal is chosen as the nonlinear material. The parameters of the designed perfect PC are
as follows: thicknesses and refractive indices of the N and L and layers are 0.304 m, 0.351 m,
2.157, 1.0, respectively. In order to introduce the defect, we change the thickness of the central N
layer from 0.351 m to 0.737 m as shown in Fig. 1(b).

PIERS Proceedings, Stockholm, Sweden, Aug. 1215, 2013

1460

(a)

(b)
N

Figure 1: Geometric structure of PC. (a) Perfect

periodic PC, (b) defective PC.

Figure 2: Permittivity in the wavelength range of

0.150.18 m.

Nonlinear materials (LiNbO3 ) is a dispersive material, the dispersion effect of its relative dielectric constant versus frequency should be taken into account in the calculations. Normally,
the dispersion in LiNbO3 should be expressed by a multiple second order Lorentz poles model, and
() can be expressed as
ba
() = a +
(1)
1 j
where a, b, and are fitting constants, and they are chosen to be 6.2, 4.49, and 1.77 1016 s ,
respectively. Fig. 2 shows that in the wavelength range of 0.51.8 m.
In these structures, the nonlinearity is modeled in the relation D = 0 E, where

2
= n2 = n0 + n2 |E|2 ' n20 + 2n0 n2 |E|2
(2)
where the linear refractive index n0 is dimensionless, and the nonlinear refractive index n2 has
units of m2 /v2 . We use the finite-difference time-domain method [15] to solve three-order nonlinear
medium.
3. SIMULATION AND RESULTS

Firstly we simulate the frequency-domain waveform of a bulk nonlinear material layer with a
Gaussian beam illumination as illustrated in Fig. 3. The fundamental wave frequency is chosen to
be 250 THz, and the third-harmonic wave appears at 750 THz. As shown in Fig. 2, the harmonic
amplitude is about 3.5% of the fundamental amplitude.

Figure 3: Frequency-domain waveform of third-harmonic generation in a bulk nonlinear material.

In this paper, we can enhance the second-order harmonic wave by utilizing the nonlinear defective
PCs. According to the results in [10], high-order harmonic wave can be enhanced by introducing the
nonlinear defective layer in PC structures. Electromagnetic wave cant directly propagate through

Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Stockholm, Sweden, Aug. 12-15, 2013 1461

the PCs for the PBG. If PCs have a defect layer, electromagnetic wave can be limited in the defect
and reflected back and forth repeatedly. These localized electromagnetic waves are superimposed,
and the amplitude of the electromagnetic waves will be improved greatly. The refractive index of
the nonlinear medium is related to the intensity of electric field. It can be also looked as a very
strong electromagnetic wave. So enhancement of high order harmonic wave can be realized. Now,
we introduce a single defect into the PCs. And the nonlinear material is introduced into a defect
layer. We calculated the transmission spectrum of the structure (N L)7 N (LN )7 by using TMM.
Figure 4(a) shows the transmission spectrum versus free space wavelength for a 29-layers perfect
PC. When we introduce a single defect layer by changing the thickness of the central layer from
0.304 m to 0.737 m, defect mode will appear in PBG and such defect modes is also periodic.
As the nonlinear material can generate harmonic wave, we introduce the nonlinear material to the
defect layer of PC structures. By adjusting the parameters of the defective PCs, the position of the
defect modes overlap in the position of the fundamental wave (the wavelength of FW, 1064 nm)
and the harmonic wave(the wavelength of SH, 532 nm). As shown in Fig. 4(a), the transmittance
of the perfect PC at the wavelength of FW and the wavelength of SH approach zero, meaning that
there is no localized modes within the PBGs. As shown in Fig. 4(b), when the transmittance
of the defective PC at the wavelength of FW and the wavelength of SH arrive at the maximum
value. There are two sharp peaks around and within two discrete PBG. These results confirm that
a single defect can give rise to the simultaneous dual-localized modes at the fundamental wave and
the second harmonic wave. We found that such dual-localization feature should cause the giant
enhancement of SHG. We utilize the proposed structure to make a frequency multiplier.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4: Transmission spectrum of (a) the perfect PC and (b) the defective PC.
4. CONCLUSIONS

We present a one-dimensional defective photonic crystal containing the nonlinear medium. The
performance of this structure is simulated by using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method
and transfer matrix method (TMM). Giant enhancement of second harmonic generation is predicted
in numerical simulation. The simulation results show that the investigated structure can work as
frequency multiplier.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors are grateful for the support from the Chinese Natural Science Foundation (Grant
No. 60971122), the Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. BK2011727), Funding
of Jiangsu Innovation Program for Graduate Education (Grant No. CXZZ11 0210 & CXZZ11 0211)
and Funding for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in NUAA (Grant No. BCXJ11-05).
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