The optimal vector phase matching conditions in crystalline materials determined by extreme surfaces method: Example of uniaxial nonlinear crystals

Abstract

The optimal geometries of vector phase matching are determined for the cases of second harmonic, sum and difference frequency generation in often-used uniaxial nonlinear optical crystals – KDP, ZnGePe2, GaSe, LiIO3, LiNbO3, BBO. The directions of wave vectors ensuring the highest possible efficiency of generation are defined by the extreme surfaces method. As it is shown, in a significant number of cases, the vector phase matching ensures higher efficiencies than the scalar one.