Nonlinear photonic crystals (NPCs), the materials with constant refractive index but spatial modulation of the nonlinear susceptibility [χ(2)], have created a new valuable platform for manipulating light properties (generation, transport, modulation, conversion, and detection) at micro/submicron scales and building smaller, faster, and greener optical devices that will play important roles in future optical source, information processing, and biomedical technologies. For this reason, nonlinear photonic crystal has attracted extensive and broad interest of researches all around the world. In this talk I will introduce some of our recent progresses in managing light using nonlinear photonic crystals, including broadband high-efficiency optical frequency conversion in disordered structures and nonlinear diffractions via Cerenkov and Raman-Nath type phase matching schemes. I will also briefly introduce a second-harmonic microscopy that can be used for nondestructive evaluation of ferroelectric domain structure hidden inside a nonlinear photonic crystal.
Dr. Yan Sheng received her PhD degree in Optical Physics from Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2007. From 2007 to 2009, she was a Postdoctoral fellow in Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, where she worked in field of nonlinear optical frequency conversion in poled materials. Since 2010, she joined the Laser Physics Center, Australia National University, funded by Australian Research Council (Australian Postdoctoral Fellow). Her research interest includes experimental and theoretical aspects of light propagation and conversion in nonlinear photonic crystal, high-resolution microscopy, and novel optical source.