Doubly-resonant Optical Parametric Oscillator Research Articles

Dynamically tunable broadband output coupling of optical oscillators based on non-cyclic geometric phase mirror

We present a uniquely versatile and efficient mirror system capable of real-time fine-tuning in reflection and transmission properties across a broad wavelength range and at a high optical power. Leveraging the principles of the non-cyclic geometric phase (GP) acquired by the clockwise and counterclockwise beams of the Sagnac interferometer satisfying the anti-resonant condition on propagation through the quarter-wave plate, half-wave plate, and quarter-wave plate combination having fast axes oriented at 45° (fixed), θ (variable), and −45° (fixed) with respect to the vertical, respectively, our mirror system offers dynamic transmission control across 0–100% without the need for realignment. Notably, the GP-based mirror (GP-mirror) preserves the polarization state of the reflected beam, making it ideal for polarization-sensitive applications. The wavelength insensitivity of the GP enables seamless operation of the mirror across a wide wavelength range. As a proof-of-principle, we use the GP-mirror as the output coupler of a continuous-wave, green-pumped, doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator (DRO) based on a 30-mm-long MgO:sPPLT crystal and obtain stable operation at high powers over a wide wavelength tuning range. For a pump power of 5 W, the DRO provides an output power of 2.45 W at an extraction efficiency as high as 49% when operated at optimum output coupling. The DRO shows a maximum pump depletion of 89% and delivers an optimum output power across a tuning range ≥90 nm. The demonstrated concept offers a promising approach for advancing the capabilities and control of coherent optical sources tunable across different spectral regions and in all time scales from continuous-wave to ultrafast femtosecond domain.

Squeezing level strengthened by a temperature dependent dispersion compensation methodology

Doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator (DR-OPO) is a valuable resource for preparing squeezed state. Temperature dependent dispersion compensation technology has become a popular methodology for high degree squeezing generation with DR-OPO. Nevertheless, details for the realization of temperature dependent DR-OPO have not been demonstrated yet. Here, we have constructed a full experimental layout for charactering the doubly resonant temperatures and verifying the squeezing levels in the phase matching bandwidth of the crystal. Three co-resonance temperatures of 30.74 °C, 42.54 °C and 53.71 °C were directly measured, at which 11.7 dB, 12.3 dB and 11.5 dB squeezing were observed, respectively. The experimental and theoretical results both indicate that the temperature dependent frequency detuning contributes to the discrepancy of the squeezing levels for the three temperature conditions. Careful calibration of the temperature dependent frequency detuning should be tracked to strengthen the squeezing level with DR-OPO.

Supercontinuum generation from a quasi-stationary doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator.

We report a novel, to the best of our knowledge, quasi-stationary operation-state in a femtosecond doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO). At high pump rates, a doubly resonant OPO (DRO) could evolve into a nonstationary state, and we demonstrate that through an averaging procedure, most of the power fluctuations could be suppressed, resulting in a quasi-stationary output. Moreover, the quasi-stationary DRO could be configured to generate broadband supercontinuum, with a bandwidth only limited by the parametric gain bandwidth of the nonlinear crystal. Experimentally, from a DRO based on a 3-mm-long MgO: PPLN crystal, we generated a supercontinuum with a -20dB bandwidth of 86.9 THz, covering 1.54-2.78 µm. This indeed opens up new opportunities for generating light emission with an ultra-wide bandwidth at various wavelength regions.

Higher-order dispersion and the spectral behavior in a doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator.

In doubly resonant optical parametric oscillators (DROPOs), it is possible to generate, enhance, and phase lock two frequencies at once. Following intracavity phase conditions, a complex tuning behavior of the signal and idler spectra takes place in DROPOs, cumulating into degeneracy with phase self-locking and coherent wavelength doubling. In this work, we identify group delay matching as the important parameter determining the global tuning behavior and demonstrate the key role of higher-order dispersion in the spectral dependencies. Applicationwise, we suggest a simple way to control the phase self-locking region by varying the intracavity third-order dispersion.

Continuous wavelength tuning of nondegenerate femtosecond doubly resonant optical parametric oscillators

We report an approach for continuous tuning of the central wavelengths of a femtosecond nondegenerate doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator (DRO). Key in this scheme is the insertion of a wavelength-selective element into the DRO cavity-length-locking system, which allows selected narrow-band emission from a DRO to be detected and enables the DRO cavity length to be locked away from the peak of its cavity resonances. In a preliminary experiment, we demonstrated a femtosecond nondegenerate DRO with its central-wavelength continuously-tunable over each of its cavity resonances and achieved a wavelength-tuning range of 1910-2070 nm for the signal wave and 2140-2340 nm for the idler wave. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of the continuous-wavelength-tuning capability of DRO systems.

Design of optical parametric cavity for broadband squeezed light field

The field of squeezed state is an important quantum resource in the study of quantum optics. In the application of quantum information, the spectrum bandwidth of the squeezed light field is an important index to limit the information transmission capacity. Currently, the optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is one of the most efficient ways to generate high squeezed non-classical optical fields. In this paper, the degenerate singly-resonant and doubly-resonant OPO structures are introduced. Both OPOs are composed of concave mirrors and periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystals (PPKTP). The length of PPKTP crystal is 10 mm. The curvature radius of the curved surface is 12 mm, and it has high reflectivity at 1550 nm and 775 nm. The plane surface is coated with anti-reflection coating. The air gap length is 21 mm. The concave mirror is an output coupling mirror, and its radius of curvature is 25 mm. In the singly-resonant OPO, only the signal light resonates in the cavity, and the pump light passes through the nonlinear crystal twice and then outputs out of the cavity. The reflectivity of OPO output coupling mirror to the wavelength of 1550 nm is 88%. The linewidth of the corresponding fundamental frequency wave is 77.4 MHz. For doubly-resonant OPO, both the signal light and the pump light resonate simultaneously in the cavity. The reflectivity of OPO output coupling mirror to 1550 nm and 775 nm is 85% and 97.5%, respectively. The linewidth of the corresponding fundamental frequency wave and harmonic is 97.1 MHz and 15.6 MHz, respectively. Then the threshold of OPO is calculated. The threshold pump power of OPO increases with signal light transmittance increasing, but the threshold value of doubly-resonant OPO is obviously smaller than that of singly-resonant OPO. After that, the variation of the squeezing bandwidth of the squeezed light field generated by OPO with the transmittance of the signal is analyzed. Finally, we complete the design of quantum squeezer with low threshold (18 mW), broadband (84.2 MHz) and high stability (the standard deviation of locking baseline is 0.32 MHz) experimentally. The results show that compared with the singly-resonant optical parametric oscillator, the doubly-resonant cavity has the characteristics of low threshold and high stability, which is more suitable for the preparation and practical application of broadband squeezed light field.

Continuous variable quantum entanglement at 1.34 m

Continuous variable (CV) quantum entanglement is a fundamental resource of CV quantum communication and quantum computation. It is useful in a wide variety of applications, including quantum teleportation, quantum dense coding, quantum key distribution, and high-precision quantum measurement. In this paper, we generate CV quantum entanglement at a telecommunication wavelength of 1342 nm by using a nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier (NOPA) with a type-Ⅱ periodically poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) crystal. A home-made continuous-wave single-frequency dual-wavelength (671 nm and 1342 nm) Nd:YVO4/LiB3O5 laser is achieved with output powers of 1.5 W (671 nm) and 1.3 W (1342 nm). Then a mode cleaner (MC1) with a fineness of 400 and linewidth of 0.75 MHz and a mode cleaner MC2 with a fineness of 400 and linewidth of 0.75 MHz are used to filter the noises of laser at 1342 nm and 671 nm, respectively. By using MCs, the intensity noise of laser reaches a shot noise level (SNL) for analysis frequencies higher than 1.0 MHz, and the phase noise of laser reaches an SNL for analysis frequencies higher than 1.3 MHz. Utilizing this kind of low noise single-frequency 671 nm laser as a pump, a doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator with a threshold of 325 mW is realised. When the low noise single-frequency 1342 nm laser is injected as a signal and the relative phase between the pump and injected signal is locked to , the NOPA is operated at deamplification. After optimizing the temperature of the type-Ⅱ PPKTP crystal and at a pump power of 260 mW, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR)-entangled beams with quantum correlation of 3.0 dB for both the amplitude and phase quadratures are experimentally generated. The strength of EPR-entangled beams is relatively low. It is maybe due to the low nonlinear conversion efficiency and large absorption of the type-Ⅱ PPKTP crystal at 671 nm and 1342 nm. The generated CV quantum entanglement at 1.34 m has lower transmission loss and smaller phase diffusion effect in a silica fiber. The research contributes to a high quality quantum source for the CV quantum communication based on existing telecommunication fiber networks.

Frequency combs for cavity cascades: OPO combs and graphene-coupled cavities

Frequency combs can be used directly, for example as a highly precise spectroscopic light source. They can also be used indirectly, as a bridge between devices whose high precision requirements would normally make them incompatible. Here, we demonstrate two ways that a frequency comb enables new technologies by matching optical cavities. One cavity is the laser oscillator. A second cavity is a low-threshold doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO). Extending optical referencing to the doubly-resonant OPO turns the otherwise unstable device into an extremely precise midinfrared frequency comb. Another cavity is an optical enhancement cavity for amplifying spectral absorption in a gas. With the high speed of a graphene-modulated frequency comb, we can couple a frequency comb directly into a high-finesse cavity for trace gas detection.

Intracavity-pumped, cascaded AgGaSe₂ optical parametric oscillator tunable from 5.8 to 18 µm.

A AgGaSe2 nonlinear crystal placed in a coupled cavity is intracavity pumped by the ~1.85-µm signal pulses of a 1.064-µm pumped Rb:PPKTP doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) operating at a repetition rate of 100 Hz. Using two samples cut for type-I and II phase-matching, the overall idler tunability of the singly-resonant AgGeSe2 OPO covers an unprecedented spectral range from 5.8 to ~18 µm in the mid-IR.

Pump duration optimization for optical parametric oscillators

In this paper we theoretically and experimentally investigate the optimal pulse settings to pump optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) in the transient regime. The theoretical analysis is carried out with an extended OPO rate-equation formalism that yields simple expressions when applied to rectangular pump pulses while fully taking into account pump depletion and back-conversion effects. The OPO buildup time is investigated in detail, leading to a very simple analytical formula. The study then focuses on engineering rules for the choice of the optimal rectangular-pump-pulse power and duration giving the best conversion efficiency for given input pump energy and OPO features. Making the most of a master oscillator-fiber power amplifier’s pulse-tailoring opportunities, experimental investigations covering pulsed operation ranging from nanosecond to microsecond pump duration are carried out in the case of a doubly-resonant OPO. Very good agreement with the theoretical analysis is obtained.

Compact infrared continuous-wave double-pass single-frequency doubly-resonant OPO

We demonstrate a compact continuous-wave single-frequency doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (DRO) in a double-pass pump configuration with a control of the relative phase between the reflected waves. The nested DRO cavity allows single longitudinal mode operation together with low threshold and high efficiency. Thermal effects are managed by chopping the pump beam, allowing continuous tuning of the emitted wavelength. The infrared idler wave (3200–3800nm) can be used for gas detection and the threshold pump power is compatible with diode pumping.

Directly phase-modulation-mode-locked doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator

We present results on direct mode-locking of a doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (DRO) using an electro-optic phase modulator with low resonant frequency of 80 MHz as the single mode-locking element. Pumped by a cw laser at 532 nm and based on MgO:sPPLT as the nonlinear material, the DRO generates 533 ps pulses at 80 MHz and 471 ps pulses at 160 MHz. Stable train of mode-locked pulses is obtained at a modulation depth of 1.83 radians when the modulation frequency is precisely tuned and the cavity length is carefully adjusted. The effects of frequency detuning, modulation depth, input laser pump power, crystal temperature and position of modulator inside the cavity, on pulse duration and repetition rate have been studied. Operating at degeneracy, under mode-locked condition, the signal-idler spectrum exhibits a bandwidth of ~31 nm, and the spectrum has been investigated for different phase-matching temperatures. Mode-locked operation has been confirmed by second-harmonic-generation of the DRO output in a β-BaB₂O₄ crystal, where a 4 times enhancement in green power is observed compared to cw operation.

Chalcogenide optical parametric oscillator

We demonstrate the first optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on chalcogenide glass. The parametric gain medium is an As(2)Se(3) chalcogenide microwire coated with a layer of polymer. The doubly-resonant OPO oscillates simultaneously at a Stokes and an anti Stokes wavelength shift of >50 nm from the pump wavelength that lies at λ(P) = 1,552 nm. The oscillator has a peak power threshold of 21.6 dBm and a conversion efficiency of >19%. This OPO experiment provides an additional application of the chalcogenide microwire technology; and considering the transparency of As(2)Se(3) glass extending far in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths, the device holds promise for realizing mid-IR OPOs utilizing existing optical sources in the telecommunications wavelength region.

Frequency-modulation-mode-locked optical parametric oscillator

We demonstrate a novel technique for the generation of mode-locked pulses from a continuous-wave (cw) optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The technique is based on the deployment of a phase modulator in combination with an antiresonant ring interferometer internal to a cw OPO, simultaneously providing spectral broadening and phase-to-amplitude feedback modulation. The scheme is implemented in a doubly-resonant cw OPO based on MgO:sPPLT, configured in a standing-wave cavity and pumped at 532 nm. With the phase modulator activated and the cavity length synchronized, a stable train of 800 ps pulses is generated at a repetition rate of 160 MHz. Using single-pass second harmonic generation (SHG) of the OPO output, we observe a four times enhancement in SHG compared with cw operation, confirming the real achievement of energy concentration as a result of mode-locked operation.

Ultra-broadband pulse evolution in optical parametric oscillators

Ultrashort-pulse evolution inside a optical parametric oscillator is described by using a nonlinear-envelope-equation approach, eliminating the assumptions of fixed frequencies and a single χ((2)) process associated with conventional solutions based on the three coupled-amplitude equations. By treating the interacting waves as a single propagating field, the experimentally-observed behaviors of singly and doubly-resonant OPOs are predicted across near-octave-spanning bandwidths, including situations where the nonlinear crystal provides simultaneous phasematching for multiple nonlinear processes.

An investigation of doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillators and nonlinear crystals for squeezing

A squeezed light source requires properties such as high squeezing amplitude, high bandwidth and stability over time, ideally using as few resources, such as laser power, as possible. We compare three nonlinear materials, two of which have not been well characterized for squeezed state production, and also investigate the viability of doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator cavities in achieving these requirements. A model is produced that provides a new way of looking at the construction of an optical parametric oscillator/optical parametric amplifier setup where second harmonic power is treated as a limited resource. The well-characterized periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) is compared in an essentially identical setup to two relatively new materials, periodically poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate (PPSLT) and 1.7% magnesium oxide doped periodically poled stoichiometric lithium niobate (PPSLN). Although from the literature PPSLT and PPSLN present advantages such as a higher damage threshold and a higher nonlinearity, respectively, PPKTP was still found to have the most desirable properties. With PPKTP, 5.8 dB of squeezing below the shot noise limit was achieved. With PPSLT, 5.0 dB of squeezing was observed but the power required to see this squeezing was much higher than expected. A technical problem with the PPSLN limited the observed squeezing to around 1.0 dB. This problem is discussed.

Bright filter-free source of indistinguishable photon pairs

We demonstrate a high-brightness source of pairs of indistinguishable photons based on a type-II phase-matched doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator operated far below threshold. The cavityenhanced down-conversion output of a PPKTP crystal is coupled into two single-mode fibers with a mode coupling efficiency of 58%. The high degree of indistinguishability between the photons of a pair is demonstrated by a Hong-Ou-Mandel interference visibility of higher than 90% without any filtering at an instantaneous coincidence rate of 450,000 pairs/s per mW of pump power per nm of down-conversion bandwidth. For the degenerate spectral mode with a linewidth of 7 MHz at 795 nm a rate of 70 pairs/(s mW MHz) is estimated, increasing the spectral brightness for indistinguishable photons by two orders of magnitude compared to similar previous sources.

A 2.048-μm Tm,Ho:GdVO4 Laser Pumped Doubly ResonantOptical Parametric Oscillator Based on Periodically Poled LithiumLiNbO3

A multi-grating periodically poled LiNbO3 (PPLN) doubly resonantoptical parametric oscillator (DROPO) pumped by a 2-μm laser isdemonstrated experimentally. Employing acousto-optically Q-switchedTm,Ho:GdVO4 laser with pump pulse of 25 ns and repetition rate of10 kHz as pump sources firstly, the noncritically quasi-phase-matched(QPM) tunable mid-IR output in 3.87–4.43 μm is produced. Wavelengthtuning is achieved with crystal temperature tuning from50–180°C. When the incident average pump power is 3 W at2.048 μm, the total OPO output power of 195 mW at wavelength3.88 μm is obtained, corresponding to optical-to-optical conversionefficiency up to 6.5%.

Self-pulsing instability in the cascaded optical parametric oscillator

The temporal dynamics of a multiphoton doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO), in which a not-resonated pump field at frequency 4 ω is down-converted into photons at frequencies 2 ω and ω through the two cascaded degenerate processes 4 ω→2 ω+2 ω and 2 ω→ ω+ ω, is theoretically investigated. A low-threshold self-pulsing instability is identified and analyzed both analytically and numerically. When the field at frequency ω is tuned at exact resonance with a cavity mode, in the self-pulsing regime the OPO emits a periodic train of bright pulses for the field at frequency ω and of dark pulses for the field at frequency 2 ω. Period doubling and transition to chaos is observed for detuned operation of the field at frequency ω.

Optical parametric oscillator for flow diagnostics

Cluster hopping effects and frequency instabilities prevent a wide use of doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillators (DROPOs) in the field of optical diagnostics, especially in the nanosecond regime. By using a two-cavity device, we demonstrate here that stable single-mode output can be obtained, provided that the length of each cavity is carefully chosen.