Surface spontaneous parametric down-conversion

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Aug 7;103(6):063902. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.063902. Epub 2009 Aug 6.

Abstract

Surface spontaneous parametric down-conversion is predicted as a consequence of continuity requirements for electric- and magnetic-field amplitudes at a discontinuity of chi;{(2)} nonlinearity. A generalization of the usual two-photon spectral amplitude is suggested to describe this effect. Examples of nonlinear layered structures and periodically poled nonlinear crystals show that surface contributions to spontaneous down-conversion can be important.