Stability of the singly resonant optical parametric oscillator

Abstract

We show that plane-wave singly resonant optical parametric oscillators exhibit a temporal modulation instability when pumped a certain number of times above threshold. Previously, this instability threshold was predicted, with a model neglecting variations in pump power, to occur at around 4.61 times oscillation threshold. We consider here the full self-consistent interaction between pump, signal, and idler sidebands and find that in some spectral regions the instability threshold can be lower than previously predicted, in some cases even comparable to the oscillation threshold, preventing single mode operation at high conversion efficiency. We examine the behavior of the instability for typical regions of operation, and find that both group velocity mismatches and group velocity dispersion have a significant effect. The instability can be suppressed by a suitable choice of intracavity etalon, the design constraints of which are determined.

Frequency-comb-referenced mid-infrared source for high-precision spectroscopy

“…The free spectral range of the cavity is ~680 MHz. To reduce the probability of mode-hops, a 0.4 mm thick solid YAG etalon is placed in the secondary focus of the OPO cavity [24]. The idler beam exiting the cavity is collimated and separated from the residual pump and signal beams using a dichroic mirror.…”

Parametric processes in quasi-phasematching gratings with random duty cycle errors

“…The steady-state signal intensity, and hence the pump depletion, is determined by the number of times the pump intensity is above oscillation threshold pump intensity [18,51]; we denote this number as N p (to distinguish between this quantity and the number of domains in the grating, N). For a low-loss cavity, the amplitude of the signal is given by the implicit relation…”

“…In a wide variety of experiments using quasi-phase-matching (QPM) gratings, multiple nonlinear conversion processes can occur simultaneously, whether by design [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] or as a natural (and possibly parasitic) consequence of the desired device configuration [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Such parasitic processes can play an important role in many contexts, including frequency conversion of quantum states of light [8][9][10][11][12][13], optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) [14][15][16][17][18][19][20], optical parametric amplification (OPA) [21][22][23], and QPM supercontinuum generation [24][25][26][27].…”

“…Such parasitic processes can play an important role in many contexts, including frequency conversion of quantum states of light [8][9][10][11][12][13], optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) [14][15][16][17][18][19][20], optical parametric amplification (OPA) [21][22][23], and QPM supercontinuum generation [24][25][26][27]. The types of parasitic processes considered in this paper are nominally phase-mismatched nonlinear interactions, which, in QPM gratings with random variations in the duty cycle, can occur with efficiencies significantly higher than would be expected given an ideal QPM grating and a large phase mismatch [28,29].…”

Self-organization, pattern formation, cavity solitons, and rogue waves in singly resonant optical parametric oscillators

“…The usual mean-field limit procedure requires high reflectivity R and involves an expansion in longitudinal Fourier modes and the requirement that all terms, including the nonlinear one, are independent of the longitudinal variable z. The z−variation per pass of the resonated signal field, E 1 , can be neglected when it is affected by the average of the propagation of the pump and idler waves along the crystal [30], i.e.…”