Collinear phase matching for second harmonic generation using conoscopic interferometry

Abstract

The problem of finding phase-matching directions in noncentrosymmetric biaxial crystals is simplified here by the use of Conoscopic interferometry. Based on vector relations for wave propagation in birefringent media and solutions to phase-matching equations, we show that phase matching directions can be located on the conoscopic interferograms and that fringe numbers for dark-isochromes can be used as a guide to find phase-matching directions for a biaxial crystal. This technique can be generalized and extended to any anisotropic crystal. We have demonstrated this method for the particular case of a biaxial KTiOPO 4 crystal, where it is found to be particularly suitable for finding the optimum-phase-matching directions.