1-μm-pumped OPO based on orientation-patterned GaP

Abstract

Orientation patterned gallium phosphide (OP-GaP) is a new nonlinear optical (NLO) crystal which exhibits the highest nonlinear coefficient (d₁₄=70.6 pm/V) and the longest infrared cut-off (12.5 μm) of any quasi-phase-matched (QPM) material that can be pumped at 1-μm without significant two-photon absorption. Here we report the first 1064nm-pumped OPO based on bulk OP-GaP. Multi-grating OP-GaP QPM structures were grown by producing an inverted GaP layer by polar-on-nonpolar molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), lithographically patterning, reactive ion etching, and regrowing by MBE to yield templates for subsequent bulk growth by low-pressure hydride vapor phase epitaxy (LP-HVPE). The pump source was a diode-end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ monoblock laser with an RTP high-voltage Q-switch (1064 nm, 1W, 10kHz, 3.3 ns) which was linearly polarized along the <100> orientation of the AR-coated 16.5 x 6.3 x 1.1 mm³ OP-GaP crystal (800-μm thick HVPE layer, 20.8 μm grating period only 150 μm thick) mounted on a copper blocked maintained at 20°C by a thermo-electric cooler. The OPO cavity was a linear resonator with 10-cm ROC mirrors coated for DRO operation (85%R at signal, 55%R at idler). The pump 4σ-diameter at the crystal face was 175 μm. The observed OPO signal (idler) threshold was 533 mW (508 mW) with a slope efficiency of 4% (1%) and maximum output power 15 mW (4 mW). The signal (1342 nm) and idler (4624 nm) output wavelengths agreed well with sellemier predictions. Orange parasitic output at 601.7nm corresponded to 9^th order QPM sum frequency mixing of the 1064-nm pump and the 1385-nm signal.