85% efficiency for cw frequency doubling from 1.08 to 0.54 ,microm

Boosted Second Harmonic Generation and Cascaded Sum Frequency Generation from a Surface Crystallized Glass Ceramic Microcavity

The development of novel materials and structures for efficient second-order nonlinear micro/nano devices remains a significant challenge. In this study, the remarkable enhancement of second-harmonic generation (SHG) and cascaded sum frequency generation in whispering gallery mode microspheres made of surface-crystallized glass with a 6-µm Ba2TiSi2O8 crystal layer are demonstrated. Attributed to the core-shell design, the Ba2TiSi2O8 located on the surface can be efficiently coupled with whispering gallery modes, resulting in a highly efficient micron-scale cavity-enhanced second-order optical nonlinearity. Greatly enhanced SHG of the microcavity is observed, which is up to 80 times stronger than that of a non-resonant sample. Furthermore, owing to the wavelength non-selectivity of random quasi-phase matching, ultra-wideband SHG with a strong response ranging from 860 to 1600 nm and high-contrast polarization characteristics is demonstrated. The glass-ceramic-based microsphere cavity also boosts the cascading optical nonlinearity, manifested by a two-magnitude enhancement of cascaded sum frequency generation. This work delineates an efficient strategy for boosting nonlinear optical response in glass ceramics, which will open up new opportunities for applications in photonics and optical communications.

Efficient first-order quasi-phase-matched backward second-harmonic generation

We demonstrate first-order quasi-phase-matched backward second-harmonic generation (BSHG) with an efficiency of 18.7%. This represents an increase by two orders of magnitude from earlier experiments employing higher-order quasi-phase-matching. The efficient BSHG is demonstrated in bulk periodically poled Rb:KTiOPO₄ with a poling period of 317 nm. Using these structures, the frequency doubling in the backward direction is achieved for the fundamental wavelength of 2309 nm. Here we report on the experimental investigation of the BSHG properties such as spectral bandwidth, temperature tuning, and temperature bandwidth by employing broadband and narrowband fundamental wavelength sources. The BSHG properties are compared with those of co-propagating second harmonic generation to reveal the BSHG potential for novel applications that were proposed theoretically but have not been realized in practice so far.

7.5 W blue light generation at 452 nm by internal frequency doubling of a continuous-wave Nd-doped fiber laser

We present the first frequency-doubled neodymium-doped fiber laser generating multi-watt CW power near 450 nm. A bow-tie resonator incorporating a LBO nonlinear crystal is integrated within a Nd-doped fiber laser emitting near 900 nm. This scheme achieves an IR to blue conversion efficiency close to 55% without any active control of the internal resonant cavity. As a result, up to 7.5 W of linearly-polarized blue power is generated, with beam quality factors M_x² ~1.0 and M_y² ~1.5. A simple numerical model has been developed to optimize and analyse the IR to blue conversion efficiency in the resonant cavity. Performance limitations and prospects for further improvements are discussed.

Solid-state-based laser system as a replacement for Ar+ lasers

We report on a solid-state-based laser system at 1028 nm. The light is generated by a diode laser seeded ytterbium fiber amplifier. In two build-up cavities, its frequency is doubled and quadrupled to 514 nm and 257 nm, respectively. At 514 nm, the system delivers up to 4.7 W of optical power. In the fourth harmonic, up to 173 mW are available limited by the nonlinear crystal. The frequency of the laser is mode-hop-free tunable by 16 GHz in 10 ms in the UV. Therefore, the system is suitable as a low maintenance, efficient, and tunable narrowband replacement for frequency doubled Ar⁺ laser systems.

Study on nonlinear refractive properties of KDP and DKDP crystals

The nonlinear refractive index n₂ is an important parameter for the nonlinear optical properties of a medium. Especially for the anisotropic media, the nonlinear refractive index is closely related with the direction.

Noncritical phase matching fourth harmonic generation properties of KD(2)PO(4) crystals

Noncritical phase matching (NCPM) fourth-harmonic-generation (FHG) experiments were conducted on different deuterium content DKDP crystals by adjusting crystal temperature to generate 266 nm deep UV laser. Specially, near room temperature NCPM is realized in extremely high deuterium content DKDP crystal at 38.6 °C, which is the lowest temperature to the best of our knowledge. NCPM temperature of DKDP crystals in 60-100% deuterium content range and 1050-1070 nm wavelength range are determined by a linear relationship according to the experimental and calculated results. Angular tuning properties are independent with deuterium content in medium and higher deuterium content DKDP crystals. All of these results will provide good references for future FHG applications of 1 μm laser with DKDP crystals.

Experimental generation of 8.4 dB entangled state with an optical cavity involving a wedged type-II nonlinear crystal

Entangled state of light is one of the essential quantum resources in quantum information science and technology. Especially, when the fundamental principle experiments have been achieved in labs and the applications of continuous variable quantum information in the real world are considered, it is crucial to design and construct the generation devices of entangled states with high entanglement and compact configuration. We have designed and built an efficient and compact light source of entangled state, which is a non-degenerate optical parametric amplifier (NOPA) with the triple resonance of the pump and two subharmonic modes. A wedged type-II KTP crystal inside the NOPA is used for implementing frequency-down-conversion of the pump field to generate the optical entangled state and achieving the dispersion compensation between the pump and the subharmonic waves. The EPR entangled state of light with quantum correlations of 8.4 dB for both amplitude and phase quadratures are experimentally produced by a single NOPA under the pump power of 75 mW.

589 nm laser generation by frequency doubling of a single-frequency Raman fiber amplifier in PPSLT

A high-power single-frequency 1178 nm continuous-wave laser is generated in a two-stage stimulated-Brillouin-scattering-suppressed all-polarization-maintaining Raman fiber amplifier pumped by 1120 nm fiber lasers. A polarization-extinction-ratio of 30 dB is achieved due to the all-polarization-maintaining configuration and the polarization dependence gain of Raman scattering. Single-pass frequency doubling with a homemade periodically poled near-stoichiometric LiTaO(3) crystal (PPSLT) produces an up to 7 W narrow-linewidth laser at 589 nm. The thermally induced dephasing effect is found to be the key issue for improving second-harmonic efficiency.

Laser-written waveguides in KTP for broadband Type II second harmonic generation

Femto-second laser writing was used to fabricate waveguides in a z-cut KTP sample with losses below 0.8 dB/cm. They were used for efficient, broad bandwidth, Type II birefringent second harmonic generation to the green. The temperature and wavelength bandwidth were, 28 C ∙ cm and 0.85 nm ∙ cm, respectively.

High-efficiency frequency doubling of continuous-wave laser light

We report on the observation of high-efficiency frequency doubling of 1550 nm continuous-wave laser light in a nonlinear cavity containing a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal (PPKTP). The fundamental field had a power of 1.10 W and was converted into 1.05 W at 775 nm, yielding a total external conversion efficiency of 95±1%. The latter value is based on the measured depletion of the fundamental field being consistent with the absolute values derived from numerical simulations. According to our model, the conversion efficiency achieved was limited by the nonperfect mode matching into the nonlinear cavity and by the nonperfect impedance matching for the maximum input power available. Our result shows that cavity-assisted frequency conversion based on PPKTP is well suited for low-decoherence frequency conversion of quantum states of light.

Blue laser via IR resonant doubling with 71% fiber to fiber efficiency

We report on high efficiency resonant doubling to 486 nm using periodically poled KTP. The IR laser source is an FBG stabilized semiconductor laser with a maximum polarization maintaining (PM) fiber coupled output of 840 mW. An output power of 680 mW at 486 nm was obtained from our optimized cavity, giving net efficiency of 81%. Also, we report an 87.5% net efficiency in coupling of this blue light from the servo locked cavity into a single-mode PM fiber. This gives a total of 71% fiber to fiber efficiency. Furthermore, a wall plug efficiency of 21.4% was obtained.

High-efficiency, multicrystal, single-pass, continuous-wave second harmonic generation

We describe the critical design parameters and present detailed experimental and theoretical studies for efficient, continuous-wave (cw), single-pass second harmonic generation (SHG) based on novel cascaded multicrystal scheme, providing >55% conversion efficiency and multiwatt output powers at 532 nm for a wide range of input fundamental powers at 1064 nm. Systematic characterization of the technique in single-crystal, double-crystal and multicrystal schemes has been performed and the results are compared. Optimization of vital parameters including focusing and phase-matching temperature at the output of each stage is investigated and strategies to achieve optimum SHG efficiency and power are discussed. Relevant theoretical calculations to estimate the effect of dispersion between the fundamental and the SH beam in air are also presented. The contributions of thermal effects on SHG efficiency roll-off have been studied from quasi-cw measurements. Using this multicrystal scheme, stable SH power with a peak-to-peak fluctuation better than 6.5% over more than 2 hours is achieved in high spatial beam quality with M2<1.6.

Frequency doubling of low power images using a self-imaging cavity

A self-imaging resonator can be simultaneously resonant for many transverse modes and therefore allows cavity build-up for images of various shapes. The stability properties of such a cavity are reviewed. We have used this device for the first time to enhance the efficiency of second harmonic generation of weak images. We characterize the global and local efficiency of the second harmonic generation, and discuss its limitation due to the spatial bandwidth of the cavity and the diffraction along the crystal length.

Noise suppression, linewidth narrowing of a master oscillator power amplifier at 1.56 microm and the second harmonic generation output at 780 nm

We have demonstrated a 2 W cw single frequency 1.56 microm laser using a diode laser seeded Erbium doped fiber power amplifier, and a 715 mW cw single-frequency 780 nm laser by an external cavity enhanced second-harmonic-generation. The performance of the system was improved greatly by the seed diode laser optical locked to the resonant frequency of confocal F-P cavity. The linewidth of the 1.56 microm laser was narrowed from 2 MHz to 200 kHz, meanwhile, the intensity and phase noises were suppressed by 10 dB and 12 dB, respectively. The linewidth of the 780 nm laser was narrowed from 2 MHz to 300 kHz, meanwhile, the intensity and phase noises were suppressed by 11 dB and 13 dB, respectively.

Efficient generation of >2 W of green light by single-pass frequency doubling in PPMgLN

We report 32% efficient frequency doubling of single-frequency 1029 nm light to green light at 514.5 nm using a single-pass configuration. A congruent composition, periodically poled magnesium-doped lithium niobate (PPMgLN) crystal of 50 mm length was used to generate a second-harmonic power of 2.3 W. To our knowledge, this is the highest reported power and efficiency achieved in the second-harmonic generation of single-frequency green light in a single-pass configuration.

High-efficiency generation of a continuous-wave single-frequency 780 nm laser by external-cavity frequency doubling

We demonstrated a 670 mW continuous-wave single-frequency laser source at 780 nm by using external-cavity-enhanced second-harmonic generation of a seeded fiber amplifier in periodically poled lithium niobate. A maximum second-harmonic conversion efficiency of 58% was achieved. The source can work stably over 1 h by locking the frequency-doubling cavity, while the power stability is less than 2%.

Simultaneous experimental generation of vacuum squeezing and bright amplitude squeezing from a frequency doubler

Both vacuum-squeezed and bright amplitude-squeezed states of light are experimentally generated from a frequency doubler with a semimonolithic Fabry-Perot configuration consisting of a type II nonlinear crystal and a concave mirror. Vacuum squeezing of 3.2 +/- 0.1 dB and amplitude squeezing of 1.3 +/- 0.2 dB are obtained simultaneously at a pump power of 8 mW. The two quadrature-squeezed optical fields that are generated are of identical frequency at 1080-nm wavelength and orthogonal polarization. Optimizing the input pump power by 19 mW yields as much as 5.0 +/- 0.2 dB of maximum vacuum squeezing. The advantages of the system are its simplicity and multiple utility.

Generation of twin beams from an optical parametric oscillator pumped by a frequency-doubled diode laser

Quantum-correlated twin beams were generated from a triply resonant optical parametric oscillator with an a-cut KTP crystal pumped by a frequency-doubled diode laser. A total output of 5.1 mW was obtained in the classical-nonclassical light-conversion system driven by a 50-mW diode laser at 1080 nm. A quantum-noise reduction of 4.3 dB (63%) in the intensity difference between the twin beams was successfully observed at the detection frequency of 3 MHz.

Sellmeier and thermo-optic dispersion formulas for KTP

KTP has been found to be phase matchable for type-2 second-harmonic generation of the third harmonics of the CO2 laser wavelengths at 9.2714 and 9.5525 microm at 20.0 degrees C. The resulting angle and temperature-tuning data combined with the literature values of the Nd:YAG laser-pumped optical parametric oscillator were used to improve the Sellmeier equations and the thermo-optic dispersion formula that reproduce well the temperature-tuned 90 degree phase-matching conditions of the flux-grown crystals. Applications to quasi phase matching are presented.

High-conversion-efficiency, diode-pumped continuous-wave Raman laser

We demonstrate a diode-pumped cw Raman laser in H(2) with photon-conversion efficiency of (66+/-8)%. Pumped by an injection-locked diode laser at 792 nm, the Stokes laser produces a peak output power of ~16mW at 1180 nm. Accompanying the high Stokes power are deviations from the existing theory, which are believed to be caused by the thermal-lensing effect of the Raman gas.

Stable 120-mW green output tunable over 2 THz by a second-harmonic generation process in a KTP crystal at room temperature

We report on 120-mW directly measured cw power at 532 nm from a tunable alpha -distributed-feedback laser diode near 1.064 microm frequency doubled in a KTP crystal operating room temperature inside a ring cavity. Our experimental setup allows us to scan frequencies up to 2 THz in the green-light domain and thus is extremely useful for iodine spectroscopy. We show good agreement between experimental results and theoretical predictions for the second-harmonic generation process.

Efficient quasi-phase-matched frequency doubling with phase compensation by a wedged crystal in a standing-wave external cavity

In standing-wave enhancement cavities for frequency doubling, second-harmonic fields are generated in both directions of propagation. To add the fields coherently, one should compensate for the phase shifts introduced by dispersive elements in the cavity. We experimentally demonstrate phase compensation in a compact standing-wave frequency-doubling cavity by use of a wedged periodically poled KTP crystal. The highest conversion efficiency and second-harmonic power obtained by pumping with a 1064-nm cw Nd:YAG laser were 69.4% and 268 mW, respectively.

Ultranarrow-linewidth, efficient amplification of low-power seed sources by a fiber amplifier

We report efficient amplification of an external cavity diode laser in the 1.06-microm range. The diode laser radiation is coupled into a Nd-doped silica fiber. The fiber is pumped by a diode array with up to 6.15 W of power. After a single pass of the seed radiation through the fiber amplifier, we observe up to 1.74 W of single-mode, narrow-linewidth laser radiation that is tunable over a relatively wide range of 1.060-1.067 microm. The output from our amplifier has the same spectral characteristics as the seed beam.

Angle-tuned type II external-cavity frequency doubling without temperature stabilization

We report frequency doubling of a low-power cw diode laser at 1064 nm in an external ring cavity by use of an angle-tuned KTP type II crystal. We demonstrate a new setup that requires no temperature stabilization of the crystal. An intracavity lambda/2 plate rotates the polarization of the fundamental after each cavity round trip by 90 degrees; this provides the two eigenpolarizations of the crystal required for a type II nonlinear process. As a result, it is possible to maintain the resonance condition by use of a standard locking circuit.

Intracavity Frequency-Doubled and Frequency-Stabilized CW Ring Nd:YAP Laser

A frequency-doubled and frequency-stabilized ring Nd:YAP laser with a six-mirror cavity is demonstrated. This laser satisfies both the thermal insensitivity and optimal frequency-doubling conditions. A second-harmonic output to 1 W at 0.54 mum is achieved. The intensity fluctuation is less than ?1.5% and the frequency stability is better than ?1 MHz (5 min).

Efficient resonant frequency doubling of a cw Nd:YAG laser in bulk periodically poled KTiOPO(4)

A cw Nd:YAG laser was quasi-phase-matched frequency doubled by a bulk periodically poled flux-grown KTiOPO(4) crystal in an external resonant cavity. The conversion efficiency and the second-harmonic power with a pump of 225 mW were 55% and 123.5 mW, respectively. The loss of the 1-cm-long crystal, which operated near room temperature, was 1.3% and was dominated by scatter from the cleaved facets of the crystal. No damage, photorefractive or other, was observed at intensites of 370Wmm(-2) , but beam size had to be optimized to eliminate thermal-induced instabilities in the doubling cavity.

Theoretical treatment, simulation, and experiments of doubly resonant sum-frequency mixing in an external resonator

We describe the theoretical treatment of the doubly resonant sum-frequency mixing in an external resonator. The nonlinear conversion efficiency is increased by the resonantly enhanced circulating powers at both wavelengths. The model predicts the circulating powers in the resonator at two input wavelengths: the powers that are reflected off the input coupler and the output power at the sum frequency. Numerical simulation gives the design optimization of the system. The result of the simulation is compared with the result of a continuous-wave 355-nm generation experiment, where 0.66-W of output power was obtained.

39.5% conversion of low-power Q-switched Nd:YAG laser radiation to 266 nm by use of a resonant ring cavity

A simple ring cavity consisting of mirrors reflecting at the second harmonic is used to generate the fourth harmonic of low-power Q-switched Nd:YAG laser pulses. A large beam waist of 1 mm minimized the effects of double refraction and thermal loading of the nonlinear crystals. By simulating the low-power pulses with a small portion of the output from a 30-Hz flash-lamp-pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, we obtained IR-UV energy conversion as great as 39.5% to yield 84-mW average power at 266 nm from 213 mW of single-mode 1064-nm radiation.

1.1-W single-frequency 532-nm radiation by second-harmonic generation of a miniature Nd:YAG ring laser

A compact and efficient source of cw single-frequency radiation at 532 nm with excellent long-term stability has been realized by external frequency doubling of a diode-pumped miniature Nd:YAG ring laser. With a semimonolithic MgO:LiNbO(3) resonator an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 89% from 1064 to 532 nm at an output power of 1.1 W was achieved, with a wall plug efficiency of 9%. This system represents an ideal pump source for narrow-linewidth cw optical parametric oscillators with good frequency stability.

82% Efficient continuous-wave frequency doubling of 1.06 microm with a monolithic MgO:LiNbO(3) resonator

We describe a frequency-doubling monolithic standing-wave resonator made of MgO:LiNbO(3) with dielectric mirror coatings for impedance matching near 100 mW input power and near-optimum nonlinear coupling. An external conversion efficiency of 82% has been achieved.