Nonreciprocal frequency doubling of electromagnetic waves through double resonance and Bragg reflection in photonic crystals

A computational study of the uni-directional second-harmonic generation in a one-dimensional dual photonic crystal structure made of GaAs, AlAs and SiO 2 with quadratic optical nonlinearity and material dispersion is presented. The computational approach uses a shooting method to solve nonlinear wave equations for coupled fundamental and second-harmonic fields and the invariant imbedding method to obtain the linear transmittance and group index spectra. The dual structure consists of two substructures, the conversion structure creating a strongly enhanced second-harmonic signal and the filter structure blocking the fundamental frequency field by Bragg reflection while permitting the passage of the second-harmonic field. The conversion structure is built with an elementary cell consisting of four sublayers whose thicknesses are systematically varied. Doubly resonant second-harmonic generation with very high conversion efficiency is achieved for light incident from the conversion structure side by choosing the geometrical parameters of the elementary cell optimally and controlling the band structure. A new mechanism to enhance second-harmonic generation by controlling the energy flow between the fundamental frequency and second-harmonic fields has also been found. ►The uni-directional second-harmonic generation in a one-dimensional photonic crystal structure is theoretically studied. ►Numerically precise results based on the shooting method are presented. ►A dual photonic crystal structure with very high conversion efficiency and perfect uni-directionality is successfully designed.