The THz spectrum (spanning from 0.3 to 30 THz) offers the potential of a plethora of applications, ranging from the imaging through non transparent media to wireless-over-fiber communications and THz-photonics. The latter framework would greatly benefit from the development of optical-to-THz wavelength converters. Exploiting Difference Frequency Generation in a nonlinear all dielectric nanoantenna, we propose a compact solution to this problem. By means of a near-infrared pump beam (at $$\omega _1$$ ω 1 ), the information signal in the optical domain (at $$\omega _2$$ ω 2 ) is converted to the THz band (at $$\omega _3=\omega _2-\omega _1$$ ω 3 = ω 2 - ω 1 ). The approach is completely transparent with respect to the modulation format, and can be easily integrated in a metasurface platform for simultaneous frequency and spatial moulding of THz beams.

The THz spectrum (spanning from 0.3 THz to 30 THz) offers the potential of a plethora of applications, ranging from the imaging through non transparent media to wireless-over-fiber communications and THz-photonics. The latter framework would greatly benefit from the development of optical-to-THz wavelength converters. Exploiting Difference Frequency Generation in a nonlinear all dielectric nanoantenna, we propose a compact solution to this problem. By means of a near-Infrared pump beam (at ω1), the information signal in the optical domain (at ω2) is converted to the THz band (at ω3 = ω2 − ω1). The approach is completely transparent with respect to the modulation format, and can be easily integrated in a metasurface platform for simultaneous frequency and spatial moulding of THz beams.

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