Efficient third-harmonic generation in high-Q tantalum pentoxide microcavities
Abstract
Nonlinear harmonic generation in microcavities offers a compelling route toward energy efficient on-chip short-wavelength coherent light sources, enabled by tight optical confinement within compact mode volumes and flexible dispersion engineering. Tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) photonic platforms are particularly promising for realizing such nonlinear processes: their broad transparency window (280-8000 nm) supports broadband operation, their large bandgap suppresses two-photon absorption, and their thick-film deposition capability enables dispersion management--features that can collectively enhance the performance of nonlinear light sources. Here, we demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first efficient third-harmonic generation (THG) in high-Q Ta2O5 microcavities. These microcavities feature smooth surfaces and high loaded Q factors up to 2.67X10^6, thereby facilitating nonlinear interactions. Through dispersion engineering, efficient THG is realized in both suspended microdisks and monolithic microrings under telecom-band continuous-wave laser pumping, as confirmed by optical spectra, visible-light microscopy, and the near-cubic pump-power dependence of the conversion efficiency. This work lays a foundation for chip-scale f-3f self-referencing of frequency combs and next-generation integrated nonlinear photonics.
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BibTeX
@misc{xing2026efficient,
title = {{Efficient third-harmonic generation in high-Q tantalum pentoxide microcavities}},
author = {Xinke Xing and Yixuan Yang and Xinzhi Zheng and Renhong Gao and Li Deng and Jintian Lin and Ya Cheng},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.30579},
eprint = {2610.30579},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30579},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Efficient third-harmonic generation in high-Q tantalum pentoxide microcavities
AU - Xinke Xing
AU - Yixuan Yang
AU - Xinzhi Zheng
AU - Renhong Gao
AU - Li Deng
AU - Jintian Lin
AU - Ya Cheng
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.30579
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30579
AB - Nonlinear harmonic generation in microcavities offers a compelling route toward energy efficient on-chip short-wavelength coherent light sources, enabled by tight optical confinement within compact mode volumes and flexible dispersion engineering. Tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) photonic platforms are particularly promising for realizing such nonlinear processes: their broad transparency window (280-8000 nm) supports broadband operation, their large bandgap suppresses two-photon absorption, and their thick-film deposition capability enables dispersion management--features that can collectively enhance the performance of nonlinear light sources. Here, we demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first efficient third-harmonic generation (THG) in high-Q Ta2O5 microcavities. These microcavities feature smooth surfaces and high loaded Q factors up to 2.67X10^6, thereby facilitating nonlinear interactions. Through dispersion engineering, efficient THG is realized in both suspended microdisks and monolithic microrings under telecom-band continuous-wave laser pumping, as confirmed by optical spectra, visible-light microscopy, and the near-cubic pump-power dependence of the conversion efficiency. This work lays a foundation for chip-scale f-3f self-referencing of frequency combs and next-generation integrated nonlinear photonics.
ER -