Ultraviolet-C to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in periodically poled lithium tantalate waveguides

Hongzhi Xiong; Xinmin Yao; Ming Zhang; Qingrui Yao; Huan Li; Zejie Yu; Gong Zhang; Liu Liu; Yaocheng Shi; Hon-ki Tsang; Daoxin Dai

doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02323-4

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Ultraviolet-C to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in periodically poled lithium tantalate waveguides

Original Articles

- Ultraviolet-C to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in periodically poled lithium tantalate waveguides
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 8, Pages: 2770-2781(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.State Key Laboratory for Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Technology, College of Optical Science and Engineering, International Research Center for Advanced Photonics, Zhejiang University, Zijingang Campus, Hangzhou, China
  2.Ningbo Global Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Ningbo, China
  3.Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
  4.China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, China
- Author bio：
  
  Ming Zhang (mingzhang@zju.edu.cn)
  Daoxin Dai (dxdai@zju.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-026-02323-4
  CLC：
- Received：12 July 2025，
  
  Revised：2026-04-15，
  
  Accepted：20 April 2026，
  
  Online First：26 May 2026，
  
  Published：31 August 2026
- Accepted：
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Xiong, H. Z. et al. Ultraviolet-C to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in periodically poled lithium tantalate waveguides. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2770-2781 (2026).
DOI：

Xiong, H. Z. et al. Ultraviolet-C to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in periodically poled lithium tantalate waveguides. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2770-2781 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-026-02323-4.

摘要

Abstract

Supercontinuum generation makes use of the nonlinear optical effects arising from the interaction of light with the bound electronic states in crystal lattices and has many applications

especially in the ultraviolet for the direct probing of large-energy electronic transitions. However

supercontinuum from integrated waveguides has been limited to > 330 nm in the ultraviolet-A band because of material dispersion and absorption. Here

we demonstrate unprecedented ultraviolet-C-to-mid-infrared supercontinuum on a chip

leveraging the exceptional transparency window and second-order nonlinearity of lithium tantalate (LT). A key innovation is the introduction of chirped periodically poled LT with submicron ferroelectric domains. Utilizing 3-wave-mixing processes under quasi-phase-matching conditions

we created the shortest ultraviolet wavelength ever reported from a chip—below 270 nm—while reaching 2400 nm in the mid-infrared

covering more than three octaves with just 100 pJ pulse energy on a chip for the first time. It's the first on-chip supercontinuum fully covering the ultraviolet-A/B bands while extending into the ultraviolet-C band. This work establishes thin-film LT as a versatile platform for full-spectrum nonlinear photonics

opening new possibilities for integrated ultraviolet sources.

关键词

Keywords

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