Visible-to-ultraviolet frequency comb generation in lithium niobate nanophotonic waveguides

The introduction of nonlinear nanophotonic devices to the field of optical frequency comb metrology has enabled new opportunities for low-power and chip-integrated clocks, high-precision frequency synthesis and broad-bandwidth spectroscopy. However, most of these advances remain constrained to the near-infrared region of the spectrum, which has restricted the integration of frequency combs with numerous quantum and atomic systems in the ultraviolet and visible ranges. Here we overcome this shortcoming with the introduction of multisegment nanophotonic thin-film lithium niobate waveguides that combine engineered dispersion and chirped quasi-phase matching for efficient supercontinuum generation via the combination of χ⁽²⁾ and χ⁽³⁾ nonlinearities. With only 90 pJ of pulse energy at 1,550 nm, we achieve gap-free frequency comb coverage spanning 330–2,400 nm. The conversion efficiency from the near-infrared pump to the ultraviolet–visible region of 350–550 nm is 17%, and our modelling of optimized poling structures predicts an even higher efficiency. Harmonic generation via the χ⁽²⁾ nonlinearity in the same waveguide directly yields the carrier-envelope offset frequency and a means to verify the comb coherence at wavelengths as short as 350 nm. Our results provide an integrated photonics approach to create visible and ultraviolet frequency combs that will impact precision spectroscopy, quantum information processing and optical clock applications in this important spectral window.