Broadband frequency conversion of ultrashort pulses using high-Q metasurface cavities

Frequency conversion of light can be dramatically enhanced using high quality factor (Q-factor) cavities. Unfortunately, the achievable conversion efficiencies and conversion bandwidths are fundamentally limited by the time–bandwidth limit of the cavity, restricting their use in frequency conversion of ultrashort pulses. Here, we propose and numerically demonstrate sum-frequency generation based frequency conversion using a metasurface-based cavity configuration that could overcome this limitation. The proposed experimental configuration takes use of the spatially dispersive responses of periodic metasurfaces supporting collective surface lattice resonances (SLRs), and can be utilized for broadband frequency conversion of ultrashort pulses. We investigate a plasmonic metasurface, supporting a high-Q SLR (Q=500, linewidth of 2 nm) centred near 1000 nm, and demonstrate ~1000-fold enhancements of nonlinear signals. Furthermore, we demonstrate broadband frequency conversion with a pump conversion bandwidth reaching 75 nm, a value that greatly surpasses the linewidth of the studied cavity. Our work opens new avenues to utilize high-Q metasurfaces also for broadband frequency conversion of light.