Synchronously Pumped Optical Parametric Oscillator with Intracavity Difference Frequency Mixing
Abstract
In this work we experimentally investigate a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) with an intracavity crystal that mixes the signal and idler waves, enhancing the power conversion efficiency of the idler radiation. Optical parametric oscillators provide a method for producing coherent tunable radiation from a coherent fixed-frequency pump source. The pump frequency Wp 15 converted to the signal and idler frequencies Ws and Wi, respectively, in the OPO interaction, Wp = Ws + Wi, Ws > Wi. Since the signal and idler frequencies sum to the incident pump frequency, they are always lower than the pump frequency. Extra-cavity difference-frequency mixing (DFM) of the signal and idler from an OPO was demonstrated in some early experiments and recently a number of investigators have examined mixing the signal and idler waves generated from a synchronously pumped OPO to produce long-wavelength difference-frequency radiation. Here the difference-frequency Wd is produced in the DFM interaction, Wd = Ws - Wi. The DFM process not only produces long-wavelength radiation at the difference frequency, but for each difference-frequency photon produced, another idler photon is produced. Thus, this technique also increases the idler-frequency conversion efficiency. Production of the long-wavelength difference-frequency photons may not be possible in a single-step OPO process, due to transmission bands and phase-matching limitations of available crystals and available pump wavelengths.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 29, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA348615
Entities
People
- Michael E. Dearborn
Organizations
- University of New Mexico