Energy Squeeze of Ultrashort Light Pulse by Kerr Nonlinear Photonic Crystals

Self-phase modulation can efficiently shape the spectrum of an optical pulse propagating along an optical material with Kerr nonlinearity. In this work we show that a one-dimensional Kerr nonlinear photonic crystal can impose anomalous spectrum modulation to a high-power ultrashort light pulse. The spectrum component at the photonic band gap edge can be one order of magnitude enhanced in addition to the ordinary spectrum broadening due to self-phase modulation. The enhancement is strictly pinned at the band gap edge by changing the sample length, the intensity or central wavelength of the incident pulse. The phenomenon is attributed to band gap induced enhancement of light-matter interaction.