Second Harmonic Generation in AlGaAs Nanowaveguides

In this paper, we investigate semiconductor nanowaveguides (i.e. ridge waveguides with core-widths narrower than 1 μm) intended to act as novel optical light sources through nonlinear wavelength/frequency conversion. In particular, numerical calculations have been performed in order to design suitable photonic devices (fabricated in the AlGaAs/GaAs platform) capable of high efficiency second harmonic generation. Particular interest has been dedicated to the effective conversion of optical signals from 1520-1600 nm (the third telecom window) down to 760-800 nm. We demonstrate that the output wavelength (resulting from modal phase-matching) can be dynamically tuned by proper adjustment of the temperature and/or geometrical parameters of the waveguides. In addition, by changing the waveguide width it is also possible to modify the device dispersion characteristics, giving the possibility to work in the region of anomalous dispersion and thus allowing for the generation of temporal solitons.