High efficiency mid-infrared optical parametric oscillation in thick periodically poled lithium niobate

Summary form only given. Owing to its nonlinear optical properties, periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) has recently attracted attention. Most results dealt with 500 /spl mu/m thick substrates, but several applications demand higher apertures to get high energy mid-IR pulses. However, few reports on thicker PPLN have been published. In the present work, high quality 1 mm-thick and 20 mm-long samples have been fabricated with grating periods ranging from 27 to 30 /spl mu/m due to ferroelectric domain inversion under high electric field. Once polished and AR-coated, those crystals have been used to demonstrate room temperature optical parametric oscillation.