Heavily doped semiconductors have emerged as tunable low-loss plasmonic materials at midinfrared frequencies. In this article we investigate nonlinear optical phenomena associated with high concentration of free electrons. We use a hydrodynamic description to study free electron dynamics in heavily doped semiconductors up to third-order terms, which are usually negligible for noble metals. We find that cascaded third-harmonic generation due to second-harmonic signals can be as strong as direct third-harmonic generation contributions even when the second-harmonic generation efficiency is zero. Moreover, we show that when coupled with plasmonic enhancement free electron nonlinearities could be up to two orders of magnitude larger than conventional semiconductor nonlinearities. Our work might open a new route for nonlinear optical integrated devices at midinfrared frequencies.

• Received 11 December 2020
• Revised 14 February 2021
• Accepted 22 February 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.115305