Scattering-Enhanced Femtosecond Optical Parametric Generation

Scattering-enhanced femtosecond optical parametric generation （OPG） has been observed and studied in detail, which may decrease the pump threshold of OPGs dramatically and may make OPGs reliable. The experimental demonstration in a LiNbO3 crystal shows that strong enough OPG can be obtained at pump intensity of only about 30GW/cm2 which is well below the crystal damage threshold Either a synchronized pulsed laser or a cw laser has been used as the scattering source, of which the wavelength, spectral shape and irradiating angle are not strictly required.     

Ultra-broadband optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification by matching of both group-velocity and pulse-front

Ultra-broadband optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification is analyzed based the compensation of phase-mismatch, which is achieved by matching of both group-velocity and pulse-front between signal and idler by the combination of the noncollinear-phase-match and pulse-front-tilt. The results show exactly matching of both group-velocity and pulse-front is the important criterion for constructing an UBOPCPA. Its general model is developed, in which the group velocities, noncollinear angles, spatial walk-off angles, linear angular spectral dispersion coefficients and pulse-front tilted angles are suitably linked to each other. Finally, specific numerical calculations and simulations are presented for β-barium borate OPCPA with type-I noncollinear angularly dispersed geometry.     

Collinear broadband optical parametric generation in periodically poled lithium niobate crystals by group velocity matching

Collinear broadband optical parametric generation (OPG) using periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystals were designed and experimentally demonstrated with the quasi-phase matching (QPM) periods of 21.5, 24.0, and 27.0 μm. The broad gain bandwidth was accomplished by choosing a specific set of the period and the pump wavelength that allows the group velocities of the signal and the idler to match close to the degeneracy point. OPG gain bandwidth and also the spectral region could be controlled by proper design of QPM period and pump wavelength. The total OPG gain bandwidth of 600, 900, and 1200 nm was observed for the PPLN devices with QPM periods of 21.5, 24.0, and 27.0 μm, respectively. We have also observed multiple color visible generation whenever the OPG spectrum was significantly broad. From the visible peaks of the three PPLN samples, it is found that broad gain bandwidth is crucial in the temperature-insensitive collinear simultaneous RGB generation from a single crystal.     

Spatial-temporal frequency band of optical parametric amplifier

The spatial-temporal frequency band of optical parametric amplifier for collinear as well as for noncollinear phase-matching is analyzed taking into account angular dispersion of amplified pulsed beam. The simple formulae are derived which make possible determination of the largest frequency bands of parametric amplifiers in noncollinear geometry. It has been demonstrated that a shape of the spatial-temporal frequency band of optical parametric amplifier essentially depends on pump and signal wavelengths, and certain angular dispersion as well as proper beamwidth of signal pulse enable amplification of ultrashort pulses with duration of a few femtoseconds.     

A 9.5-W 82-MHz-repetition-rate picosecond optical parametric generator with cw diode laser injection seeding

We report on an injection-seeded 9.5-W 82-MHz-repetition-rate picosecond optical parametric generator (OPG) based on a 55 mm long crystal of periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) with a quasi-phase-matching (QPM) grating period of 29.75 μm. The OPG is excited by a continuously diode pumped mode-locked picosecond Nd:YVO₄ oscillator-amplifier system. The laser system generates 7 ps pulses with a repetition rate of 82.3 MHz and an average power of 24 W. Without injection-seeding the total average output power of the OPG is 8.9 W, which corresponds to an internal conversion efficiency of 50%. The wavelengths of the signal and idler waves were tuned in the range 1.57–1.64 μm and 3.03–3.3 μm, respectively, by changing the crystal temperature from 150 °C to 250 °C. Injection seeding of the OPG at 1.58 μm with 4 mW of single frequency continuous-wave radiation of a distributed-feedback (DFB) diode laser increases the OPG output to 9.5 W (53% conversion efficiency). The injection seeding increases the pulse duration and reduces the spectral bandwidth. When pumped by 10 W of 1.06 μm laser radiation, the duration of the signal pulses increased from 3.6 ps to 5.5 ps while the spectral bandwidth is reduced from 4.5 nm to 0.85 nm. Seeding thus improved the time-bandwidth product from 1.98 to a value of 0.56, much closer to the Fourier limit. Received: 29 April 2002 / Published online: 8 August 2002     

Optimization of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification with different pump wavelengths

Optical parametric chirped pulse amplification with different pump wavelengths was investigated using LBO crystal, at signal central wavelength of 800 nm. According to our theoretical simulation, when pump wavelength is 492.5 nm, there is a maximal gain bandwidth of 190 nm centered at 805 nm in optimal noncollinear angle using LBO. Presently, pump wavelength of 492.5 nm can be obtained from second harmonic generation of a Yb:Sr₅(PO₄)₃F laser. The broad gain bandwidth can completely support ∼6 fs with a spectral centre of seed pulse at 800 nm. The deviation from optimal noncollinear angle can be compensated by accurately tuning crystal angle for phase matching. The gain spectrum with pump wavelength of 492.5 nm is much better than those with pump wavelengths of 400, 526.5 and 532 nm, at signal centre of 800 nm.     

Development of injection-seeded, pulsed optical parametric generator/oscillator systems for high-resolution spectroscopy

We report the development and application of pulsed optical parametric generator (OPG) and optical parametric oscillator (OPO) systems that are injection seeded with near-infrared distributed feedback diode lasers. The OPG is injection seeded at the idler wavelength without the use of a resonant cavity. Two counter-rotating, beta-barium-borate (β-BBO) crystals are used in the OPG. These crystals are pumped by the third harmonic, 355-nm output of an injection-seeded Nd:YAG laser. An OPO version of the system has also been developed by placing two flat mirrors around the two β-BBO crystals to form a feedback cavity at the signal wavelength. The OPO cavity length is not actively controlled. The output signal beam from the OPG or OPO is amplified using an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) stage with four β-BBO crystals. The frequency bandwidths of the signal and idler laser radiation from OPG/OPA and OPO/OPA systems have been determined to be slightly greater than 200 MHz. The temporal pulses from each system are smooth and near-Gaussian. High-resolution optical absorption measurements of acetylene (C₂H₂) were performed as another check of the frequency spectrum of the idler beam. The frequency-doubled signal output of the OPO/OPA system was used to perform high-resolution, single-photon, laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopic studies of the (0,0) vibrational band of the A ²Σ⁺−X ²Π electronic transition of nitric oxide (NO) at low pressure. Excellent agreement was obtained between the theory and the experiment. The signal output of the OPG/OPA system was also used for sub-Doppler, two-photon LIF spectroscopic studies of the same vibration–rotation manifold of NO.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Femtosecond ultraviolet pulses generated using noncollinear optical parametric amplification and sum frequency mixing

We demonstrate the generation of ultraviolet 33-fs pulses with a shot-to-shot energy fluctuation of less than 3% using sum frequency mixing of visible pulses of a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier with sub-40-fs pulses of a 1-kHz Ti:sapphire-amplified system. The pulses are transform-limited (ΔνΔτ=0.36) and tunable in the range from 315 nm to 355 nm with energy above 1 μJ (2.6 μJ at 330 nm). Received: 21 July 2000 / Published online: 8 November 2000     

Dependence of spectrum on pump-signal angle in BBO-I noncollinear optical-parametric chirped-pulse amplification

A BBO-I noncollinear optical-parametric chirped-pulse amplifier pumped by a Q-switched and frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser has been demonstrated. At an optimal pump-signal angle, the temporally stretched chirped signal pulses with bandwidth of 36 nm (FWHM) were amplified without any distortion in spectrum. The gain bandwidth was very sensitive to the pump-signal angle. Variation of this angle by about 1.5 mrad may significantly reduce the amplified bandwidth and result in a significant distortion in the amplified spectrum. Received: 5 October 2000 / Revised version: 13 June 2001 / Published online: 19 September 2001     

Development of a nearly transform-limited, low-repetition-rate, picosecond optical parametric generator

A low-repetition-rate (10-Hz), picosecond (ps) optical parametric generator (OPG) seeded at the idler wavelength with a high-power diode laser is demonstrated. The output of the OPG at ∼566 nm is amplified in dye cells, resulting in signal enhancement by more than three orders of magnitude. The nearly transform-limited beam at ∼566 nm has a pulsewidth of ∼170 ps, with an overall output of ∼2.3 mJ/pulse. The laser is tuned either by tuning the nonlinear crystal or the seed-laser current. The applications of such a simple, compact, high-performance, tunable ps laser system for linear and nonlinear spectroscopies are outlined.     

Surface Emitting THz Wave Parametrical Oscillator Using MgO：LiNbO3

Room-temperature operation terahertz （THz） wave source is demonstrated using three MgO：LiNbO3 crystals which have a noncollinear arrangement. The experimental results show that the THz wave can be tunable from 0.8 THz to 3.0 THz, and the peak energy output is 103 pJ/pulse at 1.5 THz. The noncoilinear cavity configuration makes the THz beam have Gaussian-like spatial distribution, small divergence angle, perpendicularly eradiated from the crystal surface. The beam quality factor M2 is measured to be Mx^2 = 1.15, Mx^2 = 1.25 for characterizing the THz wave beam. Experiments also show that the THz beam can be focused by using a polyethylene lens, and the focal spot size is close to the diffraction limit.     

Generation of tunable cw infrared radiation by difference frequency mixing

Tunable cw infrared radiation has been generated by noncollinear difference frequency mixing in LiIO₃, using the output of an argon ion laser at 514 nm or 488 nm and the intracavity radiation of a Rhodamine 6 G dye laser. Infrared powers up to 4 μW in multimode and 0.5 μW in single-mode operation tunable in the range of 2.3 μm to 4.6 μm have been obtained. Properties and possibilities of the noncollinear mixing geometry and the intracavity mixing system are discussed.     

Femtosecond third-harmonic generation:. self-phase matching through a transient. Kerr grating and the way to ultrafast computing

The third harmonic of 810-nm 100-fs pulses at 130 μJ is generated very efficiently when ultrashort pulses from two noncollinear beams interfere in an optical medium to create an instantaneous transient grating via the optical Kerr effect. The grating couples two pathways for third-harmonic generation, each taking two photons from one beam and one photon from the other beam, respectively. The coupling enables self-phase matching in the complete process, resulting in a conversion efficiency of ≈3%. Scattering an independent beam at the transient grating confirms a lifetime limited by the pulse duration, with a reaction on the order of one optical cycle. Using the second harmonic of a Ti-sapphire laser at 405 nm, it is shown that the generation of the transient Kerr grating is a general feature, requiring less than 20 μJ/pulse. By introducing a third femtosecond beam we are able to emulate various digital logic units with femtosecond response. Received: 16 October 2001 / Published online: 6 June 2002     

Noncollinear ultraviolet generation in a lithium borate crystal

Nd:YAG and a Nd:YAG-pumped dye laser are used to generate tunable deep ultraviolet radiation down to 240 nm in a lithium triborate crystal (LBO) by noncollinear sum-frequency mixing. All longer wavelengths can be generated by a combination of harmonic generation of the dye laser and sum-frequency mixing, 240 nm being the near noncritical limit. A set of versatile Sellmeier dispersion equations is derived to satisfactorily predict phase-matching in LBO.     

Magnetostatic-Wave-Based Magneto-Optic Pulse Compression by Control of Phase Mismatching

Microwave magnetostatic waves (MSWs) as moving gratings in magneto-optic (MO) film can lead to the Bragg diffraction of guided optical waves (GOWs). The MO coupling characteristics are responsible for the amplitude and phase frequency spectra of diffracted pulses and even result in the compression of chirped optical pulses in time domain. We theoretically investigate the noncollinear diffraction of linearly chirped Gaussian optical pulses by continuous magnetostatic forward volume waves in detail. For a given chirped optical pulse, with the increase of phase-mismatching slopes, the compression efficiency (CE) is gradually improved up to the maximum followed by the transition of diffracted pulses from single peak to multi peaks. The larger the chirp parameter is, the smaller the required phase-mismatching slope to achieve the maximal CE is. However, the rise of the chirp parameter or phase-mismatching slope reduces the relative peak intensity of the diffracted pulse. Lastly, it is pointed out that the phase-mismatching slope can be greatly increased by using the high-order modes of MSWs and GOWs.     

Characterization of femtosecond pulses via transverse second-harmonic generation in random nonlinear media

We study, both experimentally and theoretically, the process of second-harmonic generation by two noncollinear beams in ferroelectric crystals with a disordered distribution of ferroelectric domains. We show that this parametric process results in generation of second-harmonic wave in the direction transverse to the propagation of the fundamental beam. We demonstrate how this effect can be used for the femtosecond pulse characterization enabling the estimation of both width and chirp of the pulse.     

Development of an optical parametric generator with pulsed dye amplification for high-resolution laser spectroscopy

An injection-seeded optical parametric generator (OPG), coupled with three pulsed dye amplification (PDA) stages, was shown to produce tunable, narrow linewidth laser radiation. The OPG was composed of a pair of beta barium borate (β-BBO) crystals and pumped by the third harmonic (355 nm) output of a seeded Nd:YAG laser. The OPG was injection-seeded at the idler wavelength (824 nm) using an external cavity diode laser (ECDL) with a mode-hop-free tuning range of 20 GHz. Using the PDA stages, the OPG output signal (624 nm) was amplified to 19 mJ/pulse, while maintaining a spectral linewidth of approximately 160 MHz at full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) which was within a factor of 2 of the Fourier limit. A system of lenses and apertures was used to minimize amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in the PDA stages. Using the OPG/PDA system, two-photon laser-induced fluorescence measurements of atomic oxygen were performed by sum-frequency-mixing the 624-nm beam with the third harmonic output of the seeded Nd:YAG laser to generate approximately 1 mJ/pulse of ultraviolet radiation near 226 nm. Voigt line shapes were found to be in good agreement with oxygen atom spectra in atmospheric-pressure, laminar, counter-flow flames; the magnitude of Doppler and collisional broadening was approximately the same. The measured O-atom concentration profile was found to compare well with that calculated using an opposed-flow flame code.     

Subnanosecond pulse measurements of 10.6 μm radiation with tellurium

Subnanosecond infrared pulses have been measured by noncollinear secondharmonic generation in tellurium. The method is very practical because due to the high refractive index the fine tuning of the phase matching is easily obtained by rotating the crystal around the optic axis.     

Compact high gain double-pass optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier

A novel double-pass noncollinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based on an Yb³⁺-doped passively mode-locked fiber laser has been demonstrated in this paper. The signal was double-pass amplified in a single nonlinear crystal by a long pump pulse, and the signal and pump pulses of each pass were completely phase matched in the plane of the maximum effective nonlinearity. Net saturated gain of 2×10⁶ was achieved and the superfluorescence was suppressed by increasing the overlap time between the signal and pump pulses.     

Temporal analysis of a mode-locked Nd-glass laser by four-wave mixing

The duration, shape, and background intensity level of pulses of a passively modelocked Nd-glass laser are determined by noncollinear phase-matched four-photon frequency mixing of time-separated fundamental and second-harmonic pulses in a KI crystal. The pulse shape is found to be slightly asymmetric with slower trailing than rising parts. The background intensity level before and behind the main pulse is about 5¢10^–6 the peak pulse intensity.