Optical parametric device based on random phase matching in polycrystalline medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12199397-B2
Application number	US-201816605917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 17, 2018
Priority date	Apr 17, 2017
Publication date	Jan 14, 2025
Grant date	Jan 14, 2025

Abstract

An optical parametric device (OPD), which is selected from an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) or optical parametric generator (OPG), is configured with a nonlinear optical element (NOE) which converts an incoupled pump radiation at first frequency into output signal and idler radiations at one second frequency or different second frequencies, which is/are lower than the first frequency, by utilizing nonlinear interaction via a random quasi-phase matching process (RQPM-NOE). The NOE is made from a nonlinear optical material selected from optical ceramics, polycrystals, micro and nanocrystals, colloids of micro and nanocrystals, and composites of micro and nanocrystals in polymer or glassy matrices. The nonlinear optical material is prepared by modifying a microstructure of the initial sample of the NOE such that an average grain size is of the order of a coherence length of the three-wave interaction which enables the highest parametric gain achievable via the RQPM process.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical parametric device (OPD) selected from an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) or optical parametric generator (OPG) and comprising a random polycrystalline nonlinear optical element (NOE) configured to convert an incoupled pump radiation at first frequency into output signal and idler radiations at at least one second frequency, which is lower than the first frequency, by utilizing nonlinear interaction via a random quasi-phase matching process (RQPM-NOE).

2. The OPD of claim 1 further comprising a laser pump outputting the pump radiation at the first frequency and operating in a continuos wave (CW) regime or pulsed regime with a nanosecond, (ns) picosecond (ps) or femtosecond (fs) pulse duration.

3. The OPD of claim 2 , wherein the pump laser is a mode-locked laser outputting fs and ps pulses.

4. The OPD of claim 2 or 3 , wherein the pump laser is configured to generate an optical frequency comb.

5. The OPD of the above claims , wherein the NOE is synchronously pumped.

6. The OPD of claim 5 further comprising a servo control system operative to maintain the synchronous pumping.

7. The OPD of one of the above claims , wherein the pump laser is based on a gain element made from a TM: II-VI materials which are selected from the group consisting of Cr 2+ and Fe 2+ doped binary compounds in single-crystal or polycrystalline form (e.g. ZnSe, ZnS, CdSe), or
ternary or quaternary compounds in single-crystal or polycrystalline form including ZnMgSe, or CdMnTe.

8. The OPD of one of the above claims , wherein the pump laser is configured with a resonant cavity receiving the gain element, the NOE being located;
outside the resonant cavity of the pump laser,
inside the resonant cavity of the pump laser but spaced therefrom, or
inside the resonant cavity of the pump laser, wherein the gain element f the pump laser and NOB are combined together in a monolithic piece which provides parametric amplification and laser emission.

9. The OPD of claim 1 , wherein the OPO is configured with a plurality of optical components surrounding the NOE and defining an optical resonator of the OPO.

10. The OPD of claim 1 , wherein the OPO or OPG is configured to operate near degeneracy with the signal and idler radiations at the second frequency being substantially equal.

11. The OPD of claim 1 , wherein the OPO is configured a a sir gle,, double, or triple resonant OPO.

12. The OPD of claim 1 , wherein the OPO is configured with a micro-resonator fully integrated in the NOE.

13. The OPD of claim 1 , wherein the OPG includes at least one input coupler operative to couple the pump radiation into the NOE and at least one output coupler operative to decouple the signal and idle radiations from the NOE, at least one of the input and output couplers being a dichroic mirror or wedge or plate and being optionally provided with a AR or mirror coating.

14. The OPD of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the optical components of the OPO is an input coupler operative to incouple the pump radiation into the optical resonator, and at least one another optical components is an output coupler operative to decouple the signal and idler radiations from the optical resonator, at least one of or both the input and output couplers being a dichroic mirror or plate or wedge and being provided with or without an AR or mirror coating.

Assignees

• Univ Central Florida Res Found Inc
• Ipg Photonics Corp

Inventors

• Vodopyanov Konstantin
• Vasilyev Sergey
• Mirov Mikhail

Classifications

• H01S3/10053

  Phase control · CPC title

• H01S5/5054

  in which the wavelength is transformed by non-linear properties of the active medium, e.g. four wave mixing · CPC title

• H01S3/1628

  characterised by a semiconducting matrix · CPC title

• H01S3/1623

  chromium, e.g. Alexandrite · CPC title

• H01S3/109

  Frequency multiplication, e.g. harmonic generation · CPC title