Analysis on dependence of phase matching angle on temperature in KDP crystal

Abstract

The dependence of the phase matching (PM) angle on temperature in type-I second harmonic generation (SHG) and type-II third harmonic generation (THG) of KDP is experimentally investigated. The experimental results show that as the crystal temperatures vary by 1 °C, the external PM angles of the KDP doubler and tripler change 100 μrad and 220 μrad, respectively. The PM angle of KDP tripler is more sensitive to temperature variation than is that of the KDP doubler. Comparing the numerical calculations and the previous reports, a discrepancy has been found among the different reported results. Based on the analytical solution of the temperature dependence of the SHG process it is shown that a small error in the thermo-optic coefficients of the crystal is the main factor source of the discrepancy.