Quantum Theory of Third-harmonic Generation in Epsilon-Near-Zero Materials
Abstract
We present a theoretical framework, based on the Green's tensor quantization method, to describe third-harmonic generation in epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials and derive analytical, closed-form solutions for the generation efficiency. We validate our model against experimental measurements of wavelength- and angle-resolved third-harmonic generation efficiency from 30 nm-thin ITO nanolayers at low pump intensity, described under the undepleted pump approximation. Our results provide a local and scalar effective model for quantum nonlinear processes in dispersive and lossy ENZ media, and establishes a simple and reliable framework for investigating a variety of nonlinear optical phenomena with applications to quantum sensing, quantum information, and quantum nondemolition measurements.
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BibTeX
@misc{alipour2026quantum,
title = {{Quantum Theory of Third-harmonic Generation in Epsilon-Near-Zero Materials}},
author = {Sonia Alipour and Riccardo Franchi and Tornike Shubitidze and Smridhi Chawla and Luca Dal Negro and Marco Ornigotti},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.10794},
eprint = {2608.10794},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.10794},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Quantum Theory of Third-harmonic Generation in Epsilon-Near-Zero Materials
AU - Sonia Alipour
AU - Riccardo Franchi
AU - Tornike Shubitidze
AU - Smridhi Chawla
AU - Luca Dal Negro
AU - Marco Ornigotti
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.10794
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.10794
AB - We present a theoretical framework, based on the Green's tensor quantization method, to describe third-harmonic generation in epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials and derive analytical, closed-form solutions for the generation efficiency. We validate our model against experimental measurements of wavelength- and angle-resolved third-harmonic generation efficiency from 30 nm-thin ITO nanolayers at low pump intensity, described under the undepleted pump approximation. Our results provide a local and scalar effective model for quantum nonlinear processes in dispersive and lossy ENZ media, and establishes a simple and reliable framework for investigating a variety of nonlinear optical phenomena with applications to quantum sensing, quantum information, and quantum nondemolition measurements.
ER -