Engineering the Enhancement of Nonlinear Optical Properties of 2D Structures

The challenge of nonlinear optics stems from the negligible interaction among electromagnetic waves in free space, motivating substantial efforts to identify materials with sufficient anharmonic response as to enable optical nonlinearities at low light powers [1]. On the nanoscale, near-field intensity enhancement through optical resonators has been widely explored to design active photonic devices operating on subwavelength scales [2]. Further interest in nanoscale nonlinear optics has arisen with the isolation of graphene and other atomically-thin materials that combine a large electro-optic response with strong intrinsic nonlinearities.