Transversely-pumped counter-propagating optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers: conversion efficiencies and tuning ranges

Author

Ding, Yujie J. ; Khurgin, Jacob B. ; Lee, Seung-Joon

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. & Astron., Bowling Green State Univ., OH, USA

Volume

31

Issue

9

fYear

1995

fDate

9/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1648

Lastpage

1658

Abstract

We show that the second-order optical nonlinearities in the waveguides can be used to implement transversely-pumped counter-propagating optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers. By changing the incident angle of the pump beam, one can tune the output frequency in a large range. For the optimal semiconductor structure and with the presence of the horizontal and vertical cavities, the threshold pump powers for the oscillation can be as low as ~100 μW. There is no threshold for amplifying the incident beam. Combining the oscillators or amplifiers with vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, it is feasible for us to implement compact and efficient electrically-pumped mid-infrared light sources or amplifiers. The quasiphase matching is achieved by spatially modulating second-order susceptibility along the growth direction based on semiconductor alternating thin layers or asymmetric quantum well domain structures

Keywords

infrared sources; laser cavity resonators; laser tuning; light sources; nonlinear optical susceptibility; nonlinear optics; optical parametric amplifiers; optical parametric oscillators; quantum well lasers; semiconductor lasers; spatial light modulators; surface emitting lasers; tuning; 100 muW; asymmetric quantum well domain structures; conversion efficiencies; electrically-pumped mid-infrared light sources; growth direction; horizontal cavity; incident beam; pump beam; quasiphase matching; second-order optical nonlinearities; second-order susceptibility; semiconductor alternating thin layers; spatial modulation; threshold pump powers; transversely-pumped counter-propagating optical parametric amplifiers; transversely-pumped counter-propagating optical parametric oscillators; tuning ranges; vertical cavities; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers; waveguides; Laser excitation; Nonlinear optics; Optical amplifiers; Optical pumping; Optical waveguides; Oscillators; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Semiconductor waveguides; Stimulated emission; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.406378

Filename

406378