Tunable and efficient ultraviolet generation in nanophotonic lithium niobate

Abstract

On-chip ultraviolet sources are of great interest for building compact and scalable atomic clocks, quantum computers, and spectrometers; however, few material platforms are suitable for integrated ultraviolet light generation. Of these materials, thin-film lithium niobate is the most competitive due to its ability to be quasi-phase-matched, optical confinement, and nonlinear properties. Here, we present efficient (197 $\pm$ 5 %/W/cm$^{2}$) second harmonic generation of UV-A light in a periodically poled lithium niobate nanophotonic waveguide. We achieve on-chip ultraviolet powers of 30 $\mu$W, demonstrating the potential for compact frequency-doubling of common near-IR laser diodes. By using a large cross section waveguide (600 nm film thickness), we achieve insensitivity to fabrication errors, and can attain first-order quasi-phase-matching with relatively long poling periods (>1.5 $\mu$m). The device also demonstrates linear wavelength tunability using temperature. By varying the poling period, we have achieved the shortest reported wavelength (355 nm) generated through frequency doubling in thin-film lithium niobate. Our results open up new avenues to realize ultraviolet on-chip sources and chip-scale photonics.