Effective multiband synthetic four-wave mixing by cascading quadratic processes

Four-wave mixing (FWM) is an important technique for supercontinuum and frequency comb generation in the mid-infrared band. Here, we report simultaneous synthetic FWM in both the visible and mid-infrared bands by cascading quadratic nonlinear processes in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal, which has a conversion efficiency that is 110 dB (at 3000 nm) higher than the FWM generated directly using third-order susceptibilities in bulk PPLN crystals. A general model of the proposed process is developed that shows full agreement with the experimental verification results. The frequency difference between the emerging frequency components can be tuned freely by varying the frequency difference between the dual pump lasers. Furthermore, by increasing the conversion bandwidth and the efficiency of the cascaded processes, it becomes feasible to generate frequency combs simultaneously in three bands, comprising the visible, near-infrared, and mid-infrared bands, via high-order cascaded processes. This work represents a route toward free-tuning multiband frequency comb generation with multi-octave frequency spanning that will have significant applications in fields, including mid-infrared gas sensing, lidar, and high-precision spectroscopy.