Simultaneous generation of second to fifth harmonic conical beams in a two dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal

Broadly tunable multiple high-harmonic conical beams have been generated by means of a multistep.(2) cascade processes in a two dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal. The nonlinear structure consists of a square lattice of inverted hexagonal domains with diameters and distances between domains as low as 1 mu m. The large number of reciprocal lattice vectors provided by both the square nonlinear structure and the hexagonal shaped domains, along with imperfections on the size and shape of the individual domains make possible the simultaneous generation of second up to fifth harmonic conical beams in a single nonlinear structure by using different types of phase matching geometries. The frequency response can be tuned in an extremely large spectral range, and continuous generation of nonlinear conical beams covering the whole visible spectral region can be achieved. Further, the same photon energy can be generated at different orders, so that concentrically emitted conical beams with angular dispersion as large as Delta theta = 50 degrees can be observed. The results highlight the significance of highly controlled engineered 2D nonlinear structures to generate advanced multi-photon devices with large spatial and spectral tunable response. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America