Monolithic lithium niobate photonic chip for efficient terahertz-optic modulation and terahertz generation

The terahertz (THz) range, bridging microwave and infrared frequencies, enables advanced imaging, sensing, communications, and spectroscopy. Analogous to microwave photonics, terahertz photonics offers a promising optical solution to critical THz challenges-THz-optical interfacing, including THz-optic modulation and optical generation of THz waves. We address these with a monolithic integrated photonic chip enabling efficient THz-optical bidirectional interaction. Leveraging strong second-order optical nonlinearity and optical/THz confinement in thin-film lithium niobate on quartz, the chip supports efficient THz-optic modulation and continuous THz generation up to 500 GHz. The measured continuous wave THz generation efficiency of 4.8 × 10−6/W at 500 GHz also marks a tenfold improvement over existing lithium niobate-based tunable THz generation devices. We further leverage the coherent nature of the optical THz generation process and on-chip modulators to realize 65 GHz high-speed electro-THz modulation. The chip-scale THz-photonic platform enables more compact, efficient, and cost-effective THz systems for communications, sensing, and spectroscopy. Here the authors showcase a monolithic photonic chip for efficient THz-optical interaction, using thin-film lithium niobate on quartz. It enables THz-optic modulation, 500 GHz continuous THz generation (10x more efficient than prior devices), and 65 GHz high-speed electro-THz modulation.