Effect of cascaded nonlinear phase shift on pulsed second-harmonic generation using periodically poled waveguide: a comparison of experimental and numerical results

Abstract

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) using periodically poled material in the high-conversion regime is investigated experimentally and theoretically. In the experiment, we use nanosecond pulses and periodically poled MgO:LiNbO3 waveguides with two lengths, 8.3 and 3.6 mm. In both waveguides, the conversion efficiency reaches 80% with increasing pump power and then decreases. The reduction in efficiency is more prominent for the long waveguide. For a peak power of the fundamental wave exceeding 140 W, stronger SHG is achieved by using the short waveguide. To understand these phenomena, we numerically investigate the effect of the cascaded nonlinear phase shift caused by the quasi-phase-matched SHG. The nonlinear phase shift induces an energy backflow to the fundamental wave even when effective phase matching is satisfied, and it greatly reduces the conversion efficiency, at the same level of power as the experiment.