Coherent phase-modulation transfer in counterpropagating parametric down-conversion

Abstract

Distributed positive feedback established by a counterpropagating three-wave mixing process in a submicrometer structured second-order nonlinear medium leads to mirrorless parametric oscillation with unusual spectral properties. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that the phase modulation of the pump is coherently transferred to the co-propagating parametric wave, while the counterpropagating wave retains a narrow bandwidth and high coherence. The main mechanisms responsible for these properties are the maximized convective separation between the counterpropagating waves and the associated phase-locking between the pump and the co-propagating parametric wave. This suggests that mirrorless optical parametric oscillators can be pumped with incoherent light and still generate highly coherent backward-propagating radiation.