Modulation of high-order harmonic waves using nonlinear plasma photonic crystal and defective photonic crystal

High-order harmonic wave can be generated by the interaction between laser and nonlinear materials. In this paper, in order to achieve the modulation of harmonics, we firstly utilize the plasma photonic crystal structures to suppress the generation of high-order harmonic wave. The third-harmonic wave could be well suppressed by increasing the periods of the plasma photonic crystals and decreasing the plasma frequency. Results illustrate that third-harmonic wave output efficiency of the photonic crystal structure could reach to 0.1%, which is much lower than that of a bulk nonlinear material. Thus this periodic system with nonlinear material constituent can be simplified as a linear system. In order to enhance the high-order harmonic wave, we secondly introduce nonlinear defective photonic crystals. Results show that the transmission of second harmonic wave can be enhanced nearly to 100%.

► We achieve the modulation of high-order harmonics.
► We model a new nonlinear plasma photonic crystal structure to suppress the generation of high-order harmonic wave.
► By applying a defective photonic crystal, the second-order harmonic wave generation could be enhanced nearly to 100%.