Engineerable compression of ultrashort pulses by use of second-harmonic generation in chirped-period-poled lithium niobate

Arbore, M. A.; Galvanauskas, Almantas; Harter, D.; Chou, Ming-Hsien; Fejer, M. M.

doi:10.1364/ol.22.001341

Cited by 185 publications

(107 citation statements)

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“…Aperiodic structures have a broader spectral response than periodic ones. 3 For example, a QPM structure with a linearly varying wave vector along the direction of wave propagation can be used to achieve effective nonlinear pulse compression 18,19 and to implement various frequency-conversion processes. [20][21][22][23] In this work, we achieve a considerable advancement in this technology through the design and fabrication of chirped periodically poled lithium niobate (CPPLN) nonlinear crystals whose modulation period of nonlinear susceptibility varies along the propagation direction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simultaneous broadband generation of second and third harmonics from chirped nonlinear photonic crystals

et al. 2014

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Ultrabroadband laser sources are highly desirable in a wide variety of modern science disciplines ranging from physics, chemistry and materials science to information communications and processing. Here we present the design and fabrication of a chirped periodically poled lithium niobate (CPPLN) nonlinear photonic crystal that supports multiple orders of quasiphase matching with finite bandwidth and allows for the simultaneous broadband generation of second and third harmonics with high conversion efficiency. Moreover, the chirp rate has a significant influence on the conversion efficiency and bandwidth. The CPPLN scheme offers a promising approach for the construction of short-wavelength laser sources and enables the generation of the three primary colors-red, green and blue-from a single crystal, which may have potential applications in large-screen laser displays. Keywords: chirped periodically poled lithium niobate; quasiphase matching; second-harmonic generation; third-harmonic generation INTRODUCTION Ultrabroadband laser sources are highly desirable in a wide variety of modern science disciplines ranging from physics, chemistry and materials science to information communications and processing. Laser gain media that are capable of short-pulse generation are available but limited, and they cover only a small portion of the optical spectrum. Shortly after the creation of the first laser in 1960, the door to nonlinear optics was opened because of the discovery of second-harmonic generation (SHG).1 Broad-bandwidth and high-conversion-efficiency SHG, third-harmonic generation (THG), higher-order-harmonic generation and various frequency-mixing and parametric-conversion processes have all provided fascinating routes toward the considerable expansion of the spectral range of laser sources.To realize high-efficiency SHG, THG and other optical parametric processes, nonlinear optical materials are required to simultaneously satisfy the phase-matching condition and possess large nonlinear optical coefficients in the phase-matching direction. Although many natural nonlinear crystals have large nonlinear coefficients in certain directions, proper phase matching cannot always be achieved because of the dispersion of the material. Thus, the optical birefringent properties of certain birefringent nonlinear crystals are often utilized to compensate for the material dispersion and achieve phase matching. However, the stringent conditions for birefringent phase matching greatly limit the extension of the optical frequency. As an alternative approach, quasiphase matching (QPM), which was first proposed in 1962, 2 launched a new era in nonlinear optics because of several advantages it offers over conventional birefringence phase matching in the frequency-conversion process. These advantages include phase matching in materials that have high nonlinear optical coefficients but

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simultaneous broadband generation of second and third harmonics from chirped nonlinear photonic crystals

et al. 2014

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“…In such type of crystals, phase matching (or phase synchronism) of the interacting waves is obtained by periodically changing the sign of the second-order susceptibility, effectively widening the spectral range of frequency converters. Quasi-phase matched (QPM) or NPC gratings can also be used to provide dramatic pulse compression [2][3] and improved conversion efficiencies [4][5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…QPM gratings with a non-uniform periodicity can exhibit a longitudinally variable spectral response and entail the realization of advanced parametric processes [6], from highly efficient second harmonic generation (SHG) and parametric amplification in the case of a linear QPM chirp [4][5][7][8][9], to compression of second harmonic (SH) pulses when employing chirped fundamental-frequency (FF) pulses, [2][3][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Femtosecond pulse shaping via engineered nonlinear photonic crystals

Sapaev¹,

Eshniyazov²,

Eshchanov³

et al. 2015

Nanosist.: fiz. him. mat.

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Non-stationary second harmonic generation by femtosecond pulses, taking into account both group velocity mismatch and dispersion in nonlinear photonic crystals (quasi-phase matched crystals) with domains of arbitrary sizes has been studied numerically. A simulated-annealing algorithm, working on the basis of numerical calculation, is developed to design quasi-phase matching gratings which can yield the desired amplitude and phase profile for second-harmonic pulses in the presence of pump depletion.

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“…Used as the DFG pump, they could provide tens of mW of DFG power and many Watts of few-cycle pulses when further amplified by the same pump in an OPA. We note that the DFG idler spectral phase contains two polynomial components, one related to the poling periods of the quasi-phase-matched crystals [14] and the other due to material dispersion. Both can be removed using conventional linear compression methods.…”

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Fully efficient adiabatic frequency conversion of broadband Ti:sapphire oscillator pulses

2012

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By adiabatic difference-frequency generation in an aperiodically poled nonlinear crystal-a nonlinear optical analog of rapid adiabatic passage in a two-level atomic system-we demonstrate the conversion of a 110 nm band from an octave-spanning Ti:sapphire oscillator to the infrared, spanning 1550 to 2450 nm, with near-100% internal conversion efficiency. The experiment proves the principle of complete Landau-Zener adiabatic transfer in nonlinear optical wave mixing. Our implementation is a practical approach to the seeding of high-energy ultrabroadband optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers. © 2012 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 320.7110, 190.4975, 020.2649. Today's demand for octave-spanning bandwidth sources of coherent optical pulses-at wavelengths other than the Ti:sapphire (Ti:S) oscillator's 800 nm centered band -is widened by the need for seed pulses for ultrabroadband optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs). Such systems today include wavelength multiplexing schemes that coherently synthesize few-cycle OPA pulses of several colors to generate high-energy subcycle waveforms [1], and these require a multiple-octave-spanning seed spectrum. Ti:S oscillator pulses, extended to other spectral ranges by sum-or difference-frequency generation (SFG, DFG), are often used. For example, in [1-4], 2 μm optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) systems amplify a broadband Ti:S pulse converted to the mid-IR via intrapulse DFG. This method has poor efficiency, which is a result of the tight focusing and transform-limited duration needed to reach an intensity high enough for nonlinear interaction, resulting in a short interaction length. The seed energy in these systems is only a few pJ, less than 1% of the Ti:S power. This has practical consequences since the low seed energy in these high-gain amplifiers is the root of severe superfluorescence noise contamination, effectively limiting the overall amplifier gain [5].In this letter, we report near-100% conversion of a broadband Ti:S oscillator band to the mid-IR using the adiabatic DFG technique [6], thus proving the principle of complete Landau-Zener (LZ) adiabatic transfer in nonlinear optical wave mixing. The complete conversion succeeds for the full temporal and spatial extents of the Ti:S beam. Moreover, it covers a 0.7 octave idler band and is potentially scalable to multiple octaves from a single nonlinear crystal. Here we discuss an implementation ideally suited for the seeding of OPCPAs, but the method could be useful generally for providing nJ energy broadband infrared pulses with up to an MHz repetition rate.Adiabatic frequency conversion applies the principle of rapid adiabatic passage (RAP) for full transfer of population between states of a 2-level atom to optical frequency conversion, a concept explored in several previous works [6][7][8][9]. Notably, in the mixing of frequencies, ω 3 ω 1 − ω 2 , where ω 1 > ω 2 , ω 3 , through a quadratic electric susceptibility, the equations of motion are isomorphic to the driven optical Bloch equat...

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Engineerable compression of ultrashort pulses by use of second-harmonic generation in chirped-period-poled lithium niobate

Cited by 185 publications

References 10 publications

Simultaneous broadband generation of second and third harmonics from chirped nonlinear photonic crystals

Simultaneous broadband generation of second and third harmonics from chirped nonlinear photonic crystals

Femtosecond pulse shaping via engineered nonlinear photonic crystals

Fully efficient adiabatic frequency conversion of broadband Ti:sapphire oscillator pulses

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