Nonlinear-optical frequency-doubling metareflector: pulsed regime

Abstract

The properties of backward-wave second-harmonic metareflector operating in pulse regime are investigated. It is made of metamaterial which enables phase matching of contra-propagating fundamental and secondharmonic waves. References are given to the works that prove such a possibility. Physical principles underlying differences in the proposed and standard settings as well as between continuous-wave and pulsed regimes are discussed. Pulsed regime is more practicable and has a broader scope of applications. A set of partial differential equations which describe such a reflector with the account for losses are solved numerically. It is shown that unlike second-harmonic generation in standard settings, contrapropagating pulse of second harmonic may become much longer than the incident fundamental one and the difference grows with decrease in the input pulse length as compared to thickness of the metaslab. The revealed properties are important for applications and may manifest themselves beyond the optical wavelength range.