Coherent bisection of 141 THz using sum frequency generation of 1064 and 709 nm radiation

Abstract

The frequency interval (141 THz) that exists between 1064 nm radiation and the unusual semiconductor wavelength of 709 nm has been coherently divided by using an optical phase-locked loop to control a slave laser lying at the mean frequency of these two wavelengths. The 709 nm radiation has been generated by a combination of wavelength tuning in an extended cavity and temperature tuning of a ridge-waveguide semiconductor laser with a nominal wavelength of 728 nm. Two nonlinear processes have been used to produce the coherent division: the sum frequency mixing of 1064 and 709 nm radiation to produce 425 nm radiation and the second harmonic generation of 851 nm light to produce the same wavelength radiation.