Physorg January 11, 2018
An international team of researchers (USA – University of Southern California, Mexico) report a new strategy to fabricate near-infrared frequency combs based on combining high-Q microcavities with monomolecular layers of highly nonlinear small molecules. The functionalized microcavities demonstrate high-efficiency parametric oscillation in the near-IR and generate primary frequency combs with 0.88-mW thresholds, improving optical parametric oscillation generation over nonfunctionalized devices by three orders of magnitude. This organic-inorganic approach enables otherwise unattainable performance and will inspire the next generation of integrated photonic device platforms… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
The light orbits inside the sphere over 10,000x in a few nanoseconds, interacting with the molecules during each orbit and resulting in the generation of the frequency comb. Credit: Vinh Diep and Alexa Hudnut