Low-pump-threshold tunable optical parametric oscillator using periodically poled MgO:LiNbO3

We fabricated and characterized periodically poled MgO:LiNbO₃ device with five gratings in 0.5 μm increments from 29 μm to 31 μm for optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The OPO operation threshold is 30 μJ using this device with a 50 mm effective length. At 560 mW input pump power, we have achieved 300 mW of the total output power, and the conversion efficiency is 54%. Multi-periods and temperatures tuning of the OPO yields a signal wavelength range from 1.45 to 1.72 μm and an idler wavelength range from 2.8 to 4.05 μm in the mid infrared.     

High efficiency and high energy parametric wavelength conversion using a large aperture periodically poled MgO:LiNbO3

We have demonstrated an efficient high energy 2 μm laser generation with a 36 mm long large aperture 5 mol% MgO-doped periodically poled LiNbO₃ (PPMgLN) nonlinear optical crystal. A high power Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (1.064 μm) was used to pump the quasi-phase matched (QPM) optical parametric oscillator (OPO). A total output energy of 186 mJ with 58% slope efficiency was obtained in two separate beams at 2 μm.     

Electro-optic tuning of a periodically poled LiNbO3 optical parametric oscillator and mixing its output waves to generate mid-IR tunable from 9.4 to 10.5 μm

We demonstrate electro-optic spectral tuning in a pulsed periodically poled LiNbO₃ (PPLN) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) in ns regime. A 3-cm-long LiNbO₃ crystal is segmented in three equal sections; the outer sections are periodically poled. The center segment is of single domain whose refractive index is changed by electro-optic effect. Applying voltage from 0 to −5000 V, the OPO signal and idler waves are tuned from 1.932 to 1.912 μm and 2.368 to 2.40 μm, respectively. The signal and idler waves obtained are difference-frequency-mixed in a 10 mm long AgGaS₂ crystal to produce mid-IR tunable from ∼10.5 to ∼9.4 μm, which matches the tuning range of a CO₂ laser.     

Optical parametric oscillators for high pulse energy and high average power operation based on large aperture periodically poled KTP and RTA

We report on optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) based on large aperture periodically poled KTiOPO₄ (PPKTP) and RbTiOAsO₄ (PPRTA) pumped with high pulse energy and high average power Q-switched solid-state lasers. The OPOs were pumped with 1064-nm pulses of a diode-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser at 20 kHz repetition rate. The emitted signal wavelengths were 1.72 μm and 1.58 μm and the idler wavelengths were 2.79 μm and 3.26 μm, respectively. Pumping the PPKTP OPO with 7.2 W and the PPRTA OPO with 8 W average power, 2 W and 1.3 W total OPO output powers were generated. Two-dimensional measurements of the total OPO output power, the signal wavelength and the signal bandwidth in dependence on the crystal location indicated a good uniformity of the quasiphasematching structure over the entire 3-mm-thick crystals. This allowed pumping with larger pump beams and therefore with pulse energies of tens of millijoules. Pumping with different flash-lamp-pumped lasers, good OPO performance and high output pulse energies could be achieved for all pump lasers. Maximum input pulse energies of 56 mJ gave output pulse energies of as much as 18 mJ. The temperature tuning behaviors of both OPOs were measured, showing excellent agreement with calculated temperature tuning curves. New equations for temperature dispersion in RTA are presented. These results show that large-aperture PPKTP and PPRTA crystals are well suited for tunable nanosecond OPO operation with multi-watt average pump power and several tens of millijoules pump pulse energies. Received: 7 September 2001 / Published online: 7 November 2001     

Light Wave Interactions in Active Nonlinear Crystals with Quadratic Nonlinearity

Recent results in the field of three-frequency wave interaction in homogeneous and inhomogeneous (periodically poled) active nonlinear crystals with quadratic nonlinearity are reviewed. The quasi-phase-matched processes of self-frequency doubling, self-frequency halving, and frequency mixing of the pump and laser radiations are studied. The consecutive quasi-phase-matched processes of the third-harmonic generation and parametric amplification with low-frequency pumping in periodically poled active nonlinear crystals are also investigated. The analysis is carried out for the case of a periodically poled Nd:Mg:LiNbO₃ crystal. Perspectives of using periodically poled active nonlinear crystals in laser devices with self-frequency conversion are discussed.     

Dispersion of the dielectric function real part for Mg:LiNbO3 crystals at terahertz frequencies

We study dispersion of the dielectric function real part ε′ in the terahertz-frequency range for bulk and periodically poled congruent LiNbO₃ and Mg:LiNbO₃ crystals. The concentration of Mg in Mg:LiNbO₃ samples was close to 5 mol%, which is the photorefractive threshold. Approximate expressions for extraordinary polariton dispersion dependence were obtained in the range 0.5–6.5 THz. The influence of Mg-dopant on the optical properties of crystals in the terahertz range is revealed. Changes of the defect structure of lithium niobate crystals are discussed.     

Tunable, high-power, narrow-band picosecond IR radiation by optical parametric amplification in KTP

We report on an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) based on two potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) crystals in a walk-off compensating geometry. An Nd:YLF regenerative amplifier at a 1-kHz repetition rate serves as the pump source. The seed beam is delivered by a synchronously pumped frequency-stabilized optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN). At pump intensities of about 7 GW/cm² large amplification factors of more than 10⁴ were achieved, resulting in pulse energies of more than 450 μJ and 350 μJ for the signal and idler pulses, respectively, at a 1-kHz repetition rate. In the saturation regime the time–bandwidth product increases from two to three times the Fourier limit, with a pulse duration of 105 ps and a bandwidth of 12.7 GHz at the highest intensities employed. Received: 2 November 2001 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

Measurement of the extraordinary refractive index dispersion in the MIR for Mg:Nd:LiNbO3 crystals by the use of quasi-phase-matching in a random 1D domain structure

We present a method of measurement of the extraordinary refractive index dispersion in MIR for periodically and aperiodically poled nonlinear crystals with unknown or uncertain periods. The method is based on the spontaneous parametric down-conversion and is useful for the crystals with domain structure formed directly in the process of growth by Czochralski technique. As an example we measure the extraordinary refractive index of in-growth poled 2 mol% Mg and 1 mol% Nd doped congruent lithium niobate and present the corresponding Sellmeier equation in the range of 0.4–3.6 μm.     

三共振准相位匹配光学参量振荡器反射抽运场的正交位相压缩

利用全固化单频Nd∶YVO₄激光器抽运由periodically poled lithium niobate(PPLN)准相位匹配晶体组成的光学参量振荡器,通过调节晶体的温度,在信号模与闲置模近简并的情况下,完成了抽运场与两个亚谐波模在腔内同时共振,实现了光学参量振荡器的极低阈值运转(阈值为1.2mW);当抽运功率为阈值抽运功率的2.8倍时,观察到反射抽运光的正交位相压缩,压缩度达1.1dB.数值计算与实验结果一致     

Radiation-damage-assisted ferroelectric domain structuring in magnesium-doped lithium niobate

Irradiation of 5% magnesium-doped lithium niobate crystals (LiNbO₃:Mg) with high-energy, low-mass ³He ions, which are transmitted through the crystal, changes the domain reversal properties of the material. This enables easier domain engineering compared to non-irradiated material and assists the formation of small-sized periodically poled domains in LiNbO₃:Mg. Periodic domain structures exhibiting a width of ≈520 nm are obtained in radiation-damaged sections of the crystals. The ferroelectric poling behavior between irradiated and non-treated material is compared.     

Characterization of periodically poled LiTaO3 crystals by means of spontaneous parametric down-conversion

We describe the observation of quasi-phase-matched spontaneous parametric down-conversion in eee-geometry in periodically poled LiTaO₃ crystals. For scattered light, the two-dimensional angular-frequency intensity distribution was studied. Several detuning curves were recorded, corresponding to high orders m=-2, -3, -4, -5 of quasi-phase matching. The measured periods of domain gratings agree with the data obtained by atomic-force microscopy for the etched crystal surfaces. The presence of both odd and even orders indicates that the lengths of positive and negative domains are unequal. To determine the mean duty cycle for regular domain gratings we propose comparing of the intensities of spontaneous parametric down-conversion in different orders of quasi-phase-matching. PACS 42.65.Lm; 42.70.Mp; 81.70.Fy; 78.67.Pt; 42.65.Yj     

Synchronously pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator of congruent and stoichiometric MgO-doped periodically poled lithium niobate

A synchronously pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator based on congruent MgO-doped periodically poled lithium niobate (c-MgO:PPLN) is reported. The system, operating at room temperature, was pumped by a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. The wavelengths of the signal and idler waves were tuned from 870 nm to 1.54 μm and 1.58 to 5.67 μm, respectively, by changing the pump wavelength, the grating period or the cavity length. Pumped by 1.1 W of 755 nm laser radiation, the OPO generated 310 mW of 1080 nm radiation. This signal output corresponds to a total conversion efficiency of 50%. Without dispersion compensation the OPO generated phase-modulated signal pulses of 200 fs duration. Besides the OPO of c-MgO:PPLN, an OPO of stoichiometric (s) MgO:PPLN was investigated. Because of the reduced sensitivity to photorefractive damage, both crystals allowed efficient OPO operation at room temperature. Received: 19 August 2002 / Revised version: 11 December 2002 / Published online: 19 March 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-631/205-3906, E-mail: andres@physik.uni-kl.de     

Thermal effects in singly resonant continuous-wave optical parametric oscillators

Stability and tuning characteristics of continuous-wave optical parametric oscillators (CW OPOs) are affected by various thermal effects arising from optical absorption in nonlinear crystals. In this paper, we present an experimental study of such effects in a singly resonant CW OPO. The OPO operates in the 3-μm mid-infrared region and it is based on a MgO-doped periodically poled lithium niobate crystal. We focus our study on two thermally induced phenomena that have been recently reported to exist in singly resonant CW OPOs: optical bi-stability and thermal self-locking. Thermal self-locking effect, which is known to alter the stability and tuning properties of doubly and triply resonant CW OPOs, is shown to be also of importance in singly resonant OPOs. We report the stability and tuning characteristics of a thermally loaded OPO and discuss a simple temperature-tuning method that can be used to scan the OPO idler frequency continuously over several THz.     

Mid-infrared tunable dual-wavelength generation based on a quasi-phase-matched optical parametric oscillator

We report an efficient optical parametric oscillator (OPO) of dual idler wave output based on periodically poled MgO:LiNbO₃ with a periodically-phase-reversed grating structure, which is pumped by a Q-switched 1.064 μm laser with a repetition rate of 50 kHz. 0.98 W of dual idler-waves at 3.824 μm and 3.731 μm is achieved at room temperature, leading to a 12.9% conversion efficiency. The crystal temperature tuning provides output tunability of the dual idler wavelengths. In addition, the sum frequency generation of the dual signal waves is simultaneously observed in the OPO cavity.     

Efficient, single frequency, high repetition rate, PPLN OPO pumped by a prelase Q-switched diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser

Single axial mode operation (<200 MHz optical bandwidth) of a high repetition rate periodically poled lithium niobate optical parametric oscillator (OPO) has been obtained at signal wavelengths between 1.46 μm and 1.64 μm. OPO signal slope efficiencies of 35% have been measured for repetition rates of 5–20 kHz. Single mode operation required spectral narrowing of both the pump laser and the OPO. A simple technique of prelase Q-switching was implemented to reduce the optical bandwidth of the cw diode-pumped Nd:YAG pump laser to <1 GHz. A single intracavity étalon was then sufficient to ensure single frequency oscillation of the OPO signal. The OPO output was stable with a smooth spatial profile and an M ² value of 1.3. Received: 29 September 1999 / Published online: 27 January 2000     

Tunable wavelength conversion between picosecond pulses using cascaded second-order nonlinearity in LiNbO3 waveguides

Tunable wavelength conversion between picosecond pulses is demonstrated by exploiting cascaded secondorder nonlinearity in periodically poled LiNbO₃ waveguides when the pump pulse with 40-GHz repetition rate and 7.5-ps pulse width is adopted. No external continuous-wave input is required in the proposed wavelength converter. The converted signal wavelength can be tuned from 1519 to 1562.6 nm as the lasing wavelength is changed from 1534.5 to 1572.1 nm.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

New approaches for the fabrication of photonic structures of nonlinear optical materials

We revisited two different strategies to fabricate 1D photonic crystals of nonlinear optical dielectric materials based on ultrafast laser ablation of the surface of an RbTiOPO₄ crystal, and selective etching of ferroelectric domains of the surface of a periodically poled LiNbO₄ crystal. We evaluated their behaviour as Bragg diffraction gratings. We also presented the recent advances we developed in a new procedure of fabrication of 2D and 3D photonic crystals of KTiOPO₄ (KTP) grown on the surface of a KTP substrate by liquid phase epitaxial means within the pores of a silicon macroporous template. Optical, structural, morphological, and compositional characterization for the photonic crystals produced through this technique are presented.     

Interaction of light waves in active nonlinear and periodically poled nonlinear crystals

The results of classical and quantum studies of the laser-radiation self-frequency conversion processes in periodically poled active nonlinear crystals are overviewed. The theoretical and experimental results of studying quasi-phase-matched self-frequency doubling and summation of the laser and pump frequencies in an active nonlinear periodically poled Nd:Mg:LiNbO₃ crystal are presented. The possibility of producing frequency-and polarization-entangled states and the sub-Poisson field statistics through a consecutive nonlinear optical frequency conversion in periodically poled nonlinear crystals is considered.     

Rapid infrared wavelength access with a picosecond PPLN OPO synchronously pumped by a mode-locked diode laser

We theoretically and experimentally investigate wavelength tuning of synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) on changing the cavity length or the pump-repetition rate. Conditions for rapid and wide-range wavelength access are derived. Using an OPO pumped directly by a mode-locked diode-laser master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) system, an all-electronically controlled access to near- and mid-infrared wavelengths is demonstrated. The singly (signal) resonant OPO is based on periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) and emits 8 ps idler pulses at a repetition rate of 2.5 GHz in the wavelength range 1986 to 2348 nm (signal: 1530 to 1737 nm). Wavelength tuning over 114 nm (signal) and 189 nm (idler) is achieved solely by electronically varying the repetition rate of the diode-laser oscillator over 720 kHz. By controlling the repetition rate with a programmable driver, an arbitrary emission sequence of the OPO on two wavelength channels is generated, with access times as short as 10 μs. 11 OPO wavelengths equally spaced in the range 1627–1689 nm (signal) or 2054–2154 nm (idler) could be addressed. Received: 6 September 2000 / Revised version: 16 March 2001 / Published online: 23 May 2001     

Parametric oscillation at 2.1 μm in periodically poled RbTiOAsO4

An Nd:YAG laser-pumped periodically poled RbTiOAsO₄ (PPRTA) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) near degeneracy is reported. At a pump power of 3.7 W, a net conversion efficiency of 43% was obtained. These crystals were found to be phase-matchable for the higher order quasi-phase-matched second-harmonic generation (SHG) in the visible range. Detailed analyses of the phase-matching properties for these processes were made by using the published Sellmeier and thermo-optic dispersion formulas.