2096 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE,VOL. 57, NO.

12, DECEMBER 1969

Tunable Optical Parametric Oscillators

Abstract-This paper reviews progress on tunable optical para-

metric oscillators. Topics considered include: parametric amplifica-
tion o f Gaussian beams; threshold;tuning techniques, spectral
w
L g 1- NONLINEARCRYSTAL
] =:;
output, and stability:saturation and poweroutput: spontaneous Fig. 1 . Schematic of optical parametric oscillator. The mirrors are
parametric emission; nonlinear materials: and far infrared genera- signal of idler, or both.
highly reflecting at either the
tion.

w
I. INTRODUCTION are nearly independent of frequency, and, unlike the case
ORK on optical parametric oscillators began in for a laser transition, very wide tunability is possible.
1961 when Franken et al. [l ] demonstrated second Though in principle, the xijk allow any three optical fre-
harmonic generation of light, and thus the exis- quencies to interact, in order to achieve significant para-
tence of substantial nonlinear optical coefficients.Following metric amplification it is required that at each of the three
a number of proposals and theoretical studies [2]-[6] frequencies (i.e., at the signalidler, and pump) the generated
Giordmaine and Miller, in1965, constructed the first polarization travel at the same velocity as a freely propagat-
tunable optical parametric oscillator [7]. Since then, work ing electromagnetic wave. This will be the case if the refrac-
has proceeded rapidly and it is now possible to tune through tive indicesof the material are such that the k vectors satisfy
most of the visible and near infrared; to obtaingreater than the momentum matching condition lis+ Ei=k, [lo]. For
50 percent conversion efficiency of the light from the laser collinearly propagating waves this may be written
pump; and to obtain linewidths of lessthan a wavenumber.
With careful construction, threshold for a CW oscillator
o,n, + (up- o,)q = o p n p , (2)
may beas low as 3 mW. where n,, ni, and np are the refractive indices at the signal,
Many of the basic ideas of parametric amplification and idler, and pump. Once the pumping laser is chosen, and
oscillation have been extensivelyexplored in the microwave thus opfixed, then if the refractive indices at the signal,
frequency range [8]. If some upper frequency op, termed as idler, or pump frequencies are varied, the signal and idler
the pump, is incident on a material possessing a nonlinear frequencies will tune. Considerable control of the refrac-
reactance, then an incident signal frequency w, maybe tive indices, and very wide tuning, is possible by making
amplified. In the process a third frequency ai,termed as the useof the angular dependence of the birefringenceof
idler frequency, and such that os+ mi=cop is generated. anisotropic crystals, and also by temperature variation.
Irrespective of the phase of the incoming signal frequency, Rapid tuning over a limited range is possible by electro-
the phase of the idler may adjust such that the signal and optic variation of the refractive indices.
idler are amplified, and the pumpis depleted. A schematic of a typical parametric oscillator is shown in
In the optical frequency range the nonlinear reactance is Fig. 1. The oscillator consists of a nonlinear crystal and a
obtained via the nonlinear polarizability of noncentrosym- pair of mirrors. As will be discussed later, the mirrors may
metric crystals [9]. This nonlinear polarizability is described be reflecting at either the signal or idler frequency, or at
by a 27 component tensor xi,* which relates the three com- both frequencies. Ideally, 100 percent conversion of inci-
ponents of the generated polarization Pito the nine possible dent pumppower to tunable signal and idler power is possi-
combinations of applied field EjE,. That is, ble. The output of an optical parametric oscillator is very
much like that of a laser. It is highlymonochromatic with a
21= xijkE$k> (1) spectrum consisting of one or a number of longitudinal
j k
modes. It is often a fundamental Gaussian transverse mode
where i, j , and k may be x, y, or z. Typically over the trans- and may be highly collimated. To the eye, the output of a
parency range of the crystal, the nonlinear coefficients x i j k CW parametric oscillator exhibits the same sparkle effect as
does a He-Ne gas laser.
One principal difference between a laser and an optical
ManuscriptreceivedAugust 13, 1969; revisedSeptember18,1969. parametric oscillator is the ability of the former to collect
Preparation of this paper was sponsored jointly by the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration under NASA Grant NGR-05-020-103; and store wide-band uncollimated spectral energy. A laser’s
and by the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Office of Aero- wavelength and linewidth are determined by the pertinent
space Research, under Contract F19628-67-C-0038. This inoited paper is atomic transition and are not affected by the spectral or
one of a series planned on topics of general interest.-The Editor.
The author is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Micro- spacial distribution of the pumping radiation. However,
wave Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. 94305. in an optical parametric oscillator, phase coherence between
 HARRIS:TUNABLE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS 2097

TABLE I
REPRESENTATIVE PARAMETRIC
OSCILLATOR EXPERIMENTS

angeTuning
Crystal
Nonlinear
Wavelength
Pumping

0.53 p LiNbO, 0.73p-1.93/1 103 w

(doubled CaW0,:Nd”) (temperature tuning)

0.53 p KDP 0.96 p- 1.18 p 105 w

(doubled Nd3+-Glass) LiNbO, 0.68 p - 2.36 I/ 50
W
(angle tuning)

0.35 p KDP 0.53 pk IO percent -104 w

(tripled Nd3+-Glass) 1.06 p f 10 percent
(angle tuning)

LiNbO, 1.05/.~-1.20p 4 105 w

1 . 6 4 /A-2.05 p
(angle. temperature, and
electrooptic tuning)

0.53 p Ba,NaNb,O,, 0.98 p - 1.16 p 3 mW (CW)

(doubled Nd3+ :YAG) (temperature tuning)

0.5145 p LiNbO, 0.68 p-0.71 I/ 3 mW (Cw)

(argon) 1.9 p-2.1 p
(temperature tuning)

LiNbO, 50 p-238 p -70 W

0.696 p - 0.704 105 w
(angle tuning)

1.06 p LiNbO, 1.95 p-2.35 p 170 W peak

(Nd”:YAG) (temperature and angle 17 mW average
tuning) (repetitively pulsed)

the signal, idler, and pump is very important; and either in the crystal. The equations describing this process [8],
spectral or angular spread o f the pump may increase its [lo]-[12], in MKS units, are
threshold or widen its linewidth.
Based on crystals presently being developed, it is likely dEs
- -- -j q , o , d E x exp - jAkz
that within a few years, narrow-band tunable sources will dz
be available over the entire spectral region from 0.2 p to dEi
greater than 100 p. Like fixed frequencylasers, these sources -= - j q i o i d E x exp - jAkz (3b)
dz
should provide at least lo6 times as much power per band-
width per steradian asdo traditional spectroscopic sources.
Such sources are likely to have significant impact on many
5
dz
= - jqpo,dE,Ei exp j A k z ,

types of excited state spectroscopy, optical pumping, semi- where the quantities E,, Ei,and E , are the envelopes of the
conductor studies, and photochemistry. Table Isummarizes plane waves; e.g., E,(z, t ) = Re [E, exp j ( a , t - k , z ) ] . The
the characteristics of a number of parametric oscillator quantities q,, vi, and q, are the plane waveimpedances
experiments which have been performedto date. (377,’refractive index) of the three waves, and d is the effec-
11. PARAMETRIC AMPLIFICATION tive nonlinear coefficient. In general, d depends on the direc-
A . Amplification of Plane Waves tion of propagation and on the polarization of the respective
waves, and willbe considered further in Section VII. We
Consider waves with a pumping frequencyw pand a signal
allow for a E vector mismatch
frequency o,to be incident on a nonlinear material having
a polarizability 9-E’. Mixing of these waves generates a Ak = k, - k, - ki. (4)
traveling polarization wave at the difference frequency ai.
We firstnote thatby taking the complex conjugate of (3a)
By adjusting the birefringence of the crystal, the polariza-
and (3b) and multiplying (3a), (3b), and (3c) by EJqsws,
tion wave may be made to travel at the same velocity as a
E J q i o i , and q/qpop,
respectively, [ 5 ] that
freely propagating idler wave, thus resulting in cumulative
growth. The idler wave also mixes withthe pump toproduce
a traveling polarization wave at the signal frequency,
phased such that growth of the signal field also results. The IF\

process continues with the signal and idler fields both grow-
ing, and the pumping field decayingas a function of distance
2098 DECEMBEROF THE IEEE,
PROCEEDINGS 1969

Growth atthe signal impliesgrowth at the idler. Depending

on the relative phases of the three frequencies, power may
flow either from the-lower frequencies to the upper fre-
quency as is the case for secondharmonic or sum frequency
generation; or alternately from the pump to the lower fre-
quencies as in difference frequency generation and para-
metric amplification.
Ifwe neglect depletion of the pump, then (3a) and (3b)
maybesolvedsubject to the boundary conditions that
E,=E,(O) and Ei=Ei(0)at z=O. For a crystal length L, we
obtain
\
AkL
E,(L) = E,(O)exp ( - j i)[cosh SL + j -sinh SL
1
(- I>
Ak
2s
(64
AkL
- j 5 e(0)
exp j [sinh sL],
S

and

(
Ei(L) = Ei(0)exp - j )[:c'ash
~ +
SL j
2s
(6b)
-j 2S c(0) exp ( - j
K. y ) [ s i n h sL]

where
K, = vsw,dEp
(A+)
= VioidE, Fig. 2. Normalized gain versus (ML/2).(From Byer [96].)
r
2 = K,K: = o s o i q A i p l 2 ~ , ~ 2
erator with a fundamental frequency op/2. we If let
and
+
os= (op/2)(1 6 ) and oi= ( 4 2 )(1 - 6), i.e.,
s = (I?' - Ak2/4)"2.
6= h s - o P -21P - 2, , (9)
We first examine the single pass power gain when only a U P 1,
signal frequencyis incident, i.e., take E,(O)=O. Defining
G = IE,(L)/E,(0)12- 1, we find from(6a) then the parametric gain off degeneracy is reduced from
that on degeneracy by the factor 1- a2.
The lineshape or dependence of the parametric gain on
the optical frequency is determined by the variation of Ak
withfrequency. Noting that for Ak2L2/4>>r2L2 and

EAky;yT,
small T L

For a given crystal temperature and orientation, the center G ~ ~pia , z, r2L2
of the parametric gain linewidth occurs at that signal and
idler frequency whereAk =0. At line center the gain is thus it is seen that for small gain, the full half-power gain line-
sinh2rL,which for small gain is approximately r2L2. Thus width is determined by IAkLIZ 2a. For a 4 cm crystal of
LiNbOJ ata pump wavelength of 4880 A and a signal wave-
length of 6328 & the dispersion is such that the half-power
As an example, r2L2for a 1 cm crystal of 90" cut LiNbO, linewidth is about 1.4 cm-'or about0.56A. However, near
for A,= Ai= 1 p is approximately 0.1 Pp/A,where P,JA has degeneracy, linewidths may be much larger. From (7) it is
units of MW/cm2. From (8) it is seen that the gain of a non- seen that thegain linewidth is also somewhat dependent on
linear material is proportional to ldI2/n3,where n is the r2LZ and thus onthe strength of the pump. Fig. 2shows the
refractive index. This figure of merit, together with their quantity G r 2 L 2versus (Ak/2).
transparency range, is shown for a number of nonlinear ma-
terials in Fig. 24. It is usefulto note thatwhen os= oi=wp/2 B. Amplijication of Gaussian Beams
(ad2 is termed the degenerate frequency), that the single In determining oscillator thresholds we will beconcerned
pass gain of an optical parametric amplifier is equal to the with the gain experienced by a fundamental Gaussian mode
conversion efficiency (PsH/PF)of a second harmonic gen- of the oscillator. In general, if a beam having a Gaussian
HARRIS:TUNABLE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS

cross section is incident on a nonlinear crystal and para-

metrically amplified, the output beam will no longer be a
5
dz
= - j q p o p d g ~ s o Eexp
i ojAkz,
simple Gaussian. Thisoccurs as a result of Poynting vector
walk-off (i.e.,the fact that in an anisotropiccrystal, the direc- where the spatial coupling factors gs, gi, and g p are
tion of power flow and I; vector need not be the same) ; and
also, in the absence of Poynting vector walk-off, as a result
of the form of the nonlinear polarization generated in the
parametric process. These coupling factors are a measure of the failure of the
The power gain experienced by an incident Gaussian driving polarizations to completely overlap the desired
mode may be found by evaluating an integral of the form Gaussian modes. If (though this canneverbe the case)
JE* . 3 d V , where E is the electric field of the given mode, F= W,, e=w, and Wp= Wp,then g s = g i = g p = 1. Except
and @ is its driving polarization. A general analysis of this for these coupling factors, (11) is identical to (5); and the
problem, allowing for arbitrarily tight focusing, and also for solutions of the previous section may be employed.
Poynting vector walk-off has beengivenbyBoyd and The parametricgain coefficient T2 of (8) thus becomes
Kleinman [13],and some oftheir results will be summarized
in the latter part of this section. We first consider the more
restricted but important case of near-field focusing and 90“
phase matching (for 90” phase matching, Poynting vector where, from (10) and (12) the factor gsgi is
walk-off is absent). An analysis of this case was first given
by Boyd and Ashkin [14].
A near-field analysis keeps track of the transverse de-
gsgi = 4w2
[
W,%Wp
wfw’ + wfw; + w’wf 1’- (14)
pendence of the signal, idler, and pumpmodes ;but assumes The power of theGaussianpump beam isgivenby
that this transverse dependence does not change over the and thus (13) may berewritten
(EiO/2qp)(zWi/2),
length of the nonlinearcrystal. It thusrequires that the con-
focal parameter of the focus (of all three beams) be as long
or longer than the length of the nonlinear crystal.
To make the appropriate modification of the previous where
analysis we allow the signal, idler, and pump fields to
have Gaussian cross-sectional dependencies of the form
E,, exp - r 2 / W f , Eio exp -r2/W’, and EPPexp - r 2 / W i ,
M2 = [wfw: + wfwi + w;w;
KKWp

respectively. The generated driving polanzations at the and Pp is the incident pump power.
signal, idler, and pump arethen also Gaussians [14] having Ashkin and Boyd [14] have shown that to maximize M 2
beam waist radii F, Ffand Wpgiven by for W, and W , fixed, that thepumping beam size W i should
1 1 1 be
-=---+-
W f w’ w; 1 1 1
1 1 1 W:=wf+j@,
w: =-
w,
wf + - 5 in which case M 2 will be
1- -1- + + .1
1 1
w ;- wf w’ M&=-
4 wf + w’
For instance, the idler and pump mix to yield a polarization
at the signal frequency of the form In order to maximize the parametric gain at a given pump
power, Ws and W , should be chosen as small as possible.
r2 r2 r2 However, sincethe present analysis is restricted to the near
exp - -2 = exp - -exp -
w;
-a

WS W’ field, the smallest allowed spot sizes are approximately those

Note that these polarization radii are always smaller than of the confocal condition, i.e., Wf = L&/2nns,W ; = LlJ2zni.
the radius of either of the Gaussian beams which mix to From (16a), if boththe signal and idler are confocally
produce them. We take the appropriate projections of these focused, it is seen that the pump should also be confocally
Gaussian polarizations by multiplying them by exp - r2/W,”, focused [14].
exp - r2/W:,and exp - r 2 / W i ,respectively, and integrating Combining the previous equations, and making useof the
over the transverse cross sections. The result of this is the degeneracy factor of (9), the single pass parametric gain
set of equations coefficient G = r 2 L 2 for a confocally focused signal, idler,
and pumpmay be written
dEso
-= - jqso&gJpoE$ exp - jAkz (1W
dz
dEi0 -
- - - jq,uidgiEpoE:oexp - jAkz (11b)
dz where oois the degenerate frequency and Wg = (LA0)/(2nn)
2100 OF PROCEEDINGS
DECEMBER THE IEEE, 1969

IO + 1 TABLE I1
REPRFSENTATIVE 90" PIIASE MATCHABLE
MAW

0.0 P, for 30

focusing)

ADP 2573 A 5.0cm 0.76 MW/cm' 39watts 8 cm-'

LiNbO, 5300A 4.0cm 0.18 MW/cmz 15watts 1 cm-'
Ba,NaNb,O,,53WA 0.5cm 1.6 MW/cm2 17watts 8cm-l
cdse 2 . 5 ~0.77MW/cmZ
2.0cm 141watts
-151x11-'

ing 5 =L/bo should be 2.84. However, the increase in gain

I6 over that obtained for L/bo = 1, used in the previous near-
0-2 10-1 I IO 0 2 0 3 field analysis, isonly about 20 percent and may not be
E worth the increased pump power density at the tighter focus.
Fig. 3. Reduction factor 6,(B, 5 ) versus 5.
(From Boyd and K
e
e
la
n [131.)
It should dso be mentioned thatat the tighter focusing, Ak
should be slightly differentfrom zero. This results since,at a
tight focus, the mixing of the noncollinear components of
is the degenerate confocal spot size. The price for moving the signal and idler fields requires slightly longer E vectors
off degeneracyis the .factor (1 -d2)'. For example, if than does the collinear mixing. This optimized fi vector
L,=0.473 p and Ls=0.54 p, then 6=0.75and (1-6')' match [13] is included in the functionh(B, 5).
=0.€88; and the threshold is about five times higherthan if In many practical cases B will be sufficiently large so that,
1,=&= 21,. Substituting for W,,(17) becomes as Seen in Fig.3, the maximum value ofl;,(B, 5) will be rather
independent of 5. Boyd and Kleinman [13] haveshown
that for large B,
hm(B,5 ) + a/4B2 (B2/4 > 5 > 2/Bz), (21)
For a crystal of LiNbO, at a degenerate wavelength of 1 p,
where for the range of B and 5 shown in parenthesis, (21) is
t h i s yields
correct to within 10 percent. Since B2 is proportional to L,
rzLz E 0.005 q , ( i - 62)2, (19) the L in the numerator of (18) is cancelled, and for large
birefringence the gain is nearly independent of the length
where t is in c m , and Ppin watts. Note that for optimum
of the nonlinear crystal; and subject to the criteria of (211, to
focusing rZL2increases only linearly with crystal length. the degree offocusing.Sincefor 90" phasematching
Thus 1 watt of pumping power in a 4 cm LiNbO, crystal h,(B, 5 ) 1, ~the factor a/4BZ is approximately the gain re-
provides 2.0 percent single pass gain at a degenerate wave- duction factor which is experiencedas a result of walk-off.
length of 1 p. As an example, to phase match a LiNbO, parametric
We now proceed with some the of results of the Boyd and oscillator directly pumped by a 1.06 p Nd" :YAG laser at
Kieinman analysis [13]. Allowing for both Poyntingvector 90" requires a crystal temperature of about 750°C [13].
walk-off and arbitrarily tight focusing they show that the Room temperature phase matching at degeneracyisac-
effective single passgain of interacting Gaussian modes all complished by propagating atan angle of 43"with respectto
having the same confocal parameter is given by (18) multi- the optic axis. This yields a walk-off angle p = 0.037 radians
plied by a reduction factor hJB, 5). The parameter 5 is the and Br4.7 L"'. For a 1 cm crystal the maximum gain at
ratio of the length of the nonlinear crystal to the common a given pump -poweris then 28 times smaller than it would
confocal parameter bo ;and Bis a double refraction param- have been had 90" phase matchingbeen possible.
eter [13] defined as It shouldbe noted that the above discussion is concerned
with gain maximization at agiven pump power as opposed
to at a given pump power density. If maximization is with
regard to power density, walk-off need not be of conse-
where p is the walk-off angle, L is the length of the non- quence. If the beam radii of all modes are greater than
linear crystal, Lo is the degenerate wavelength, and no and Wo= d p L , then the gain reduction due towalk-off will be
n3 are the refractive indices at the degenerate wavelength less than 15 percent and may be made essentially negligible
and pump, respectively. B is approximately the ratio of the for still bigger beams [14].
walk-offangle p to the farfield diffraction angle of the Table I1 shows the approximate pump power densities
Gaussian beam. and optimized pump powers necessary to obtain 30 percent
The reduction factor h,,,(B,5 ) as a function of 5 with B as single pass gain with typically available lengths of some
a parameter is shown in Fig.3. In the absence of double re- nonlinear crystals. Approximate gain linewidths for these
fraction (90" phase matching), B =0, and for optimum focus- crystal lengths are also shown.
HARRIS:TUNABLE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS 2101

PUMPING POWER
111. THRESHOLD
TOconstruct an oscillator it is necessary to resonate either
the signal or the idler, or both. The latter case, where both
the signal and idler are resonant, yields the lowest threshold,
but posessevere stability problems andmirror require-
ments. Since they have the lowest threshold, oscillators of
this type have thus farbeen the most prevalent.
To determine threshold of the oscillator we require that
the single pass parametric gain (notethat there isonly
gain when the signal and idler travel in the direction of the us
Fig. 4. Pumping with a multimode pump.
pump) be sufficient to offset the round-trip cavity loss. We
define a, and ai as the round-trip E field losses at the signal
and idler frequencies, e.g., E,(O)=(l -asp&). From (6) for 20 mW. The possibility of CW parametric oscillators with
Ak = 0, we require such low thresholds wasfirst pointed out byBoyd and
Ashkin [14], and first demonstrated by Smith et al. [15].
1 Their first oscillator employed a 5 mm crystal of
E,,(O) = E,,(O) cosh TL - j 5 E;,(O) sinh TL (22a)
1 - a, S Ba,NaNb,O,, and was pumped by a doubled 1.06 p
1 K.
Nd3+ :YAGlaser. Threshold was observed at 45 mW of
Eio(0)= Eio(0)cosh TL - j .L E,*,(O) sinh T L , (22b) multimode power. More recently, Smith [16] has con-
1 - ai S
structed a CW argon pumped oscillator with a threshold of
where E,, and Ei, are the peak amplitudes of the Gaussian about 2 mW.
modes as defined in the previous section ; r is defined by The formulas of this section have impliedthat the pump-
(13); and K , and x i are given by q,o,dE,g, and qioidEpgi, ing radiation consists of only a single longitudinal mode.
respectively. Taking the complex conjugate of (22b) and For a parametric oscillator with both its signal and idler
setting the determinant of the resulting two simultaneous cavities resonant, Hams has shown [17] that if the axial
equations equal to zero, we obtain mode interval of the idler frequency is set equal to that of
the pumping laser, then all of the modes of the pumping
cash I‘L - - laser may act in unison to produce gain at a single signal
1 - a, frequency mode. Though the pump modes are randomly
. phased, the idler modes develop compensating phases
cosh T L = 1 + 2 - asai
a, - ai
(23) which maximize the gain of the system [18]. A schematic
of this idea is shown in Fig. 4. Using it, Byer et al. [19]
For low loss resonators at both the signal and idler fre- demonstrated an argon pumped visible CW oscillator with
quencies, (23)is satisfiedby a tuning range of 0.68p . 7 1 in the visible and correspond-
r2L2 z a,ai. (24) ing 1.9 p-2.1 p range in the IR. The oscillator used a 1.65
signal and idler resonant
cm long crystal of LiNbO, and had a threshold of about
small l o s e s 500 mW.
Alternately, if only the signal is resonant and it is assumed It has also been shown that if the dispersion of the non-
thatno idler radiation is returned to the crystal input linear crystal is sufficiently small that the axial mode in-
(ai= 1) than for small a, terval of both thesignal and idler may be set equal to that of
the pump, then the peak power, as opposed to the average
r2L2 = 2a,. (25) power of the pump drives the oscillator [20]. The pump
signal only resonant could then be phase locked and threshold obtained at a
small loses
lower average power.
The ratio of threshold pump power with the signal only For the case of the signal-only resonant oscillator, the
resonant as compared to both signal and idler resonant is idler modes are notconstrained, and thusthough it has not
2/ai. Thus for a 2 percent idler cavity loss, one-hundred been formally proven, the full average power of a multi-
times as much power is required for the signal-only-resonant mode laser should be useful. Further, if the axial mode in-
case. It should be noted that for small losses the round-trip terval of the signal frequency is set equal to that of the
E field losses a, and a, are also the single pass power losses pump, then peak power should be the pertinent quantity.
at the respective frequencies. It should perhaps be mentioned that formany parametric
From (24) and (25) it is seenthat parametric gains which oscillators pumped with Q-switched lasers, the problem is
are far too small to be useful for tunable amplScation are not oneof attaining threshold, but of having sufficient gain
sufficient to attain threshold in a parametric oscillator [14]. for a sufficient time for the oscillation to build out of the
For single pass signal and idler power losses of 2 percent noise. To deplete the pump requires about 140 dB of total
each, (24)yields T2L2=4x Equation (19) shows that gain. If we assume that the round-trip transit time of the
to attain this gain in a 4 cm crystal of LiNbO, at a de- oscillator is 1 ns, and if the length of the Q-switched pulse
generate wavelength of l p requires a pump power of only of the pumping laser is 20 ns; then the apparent threshold
2 102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, DECEMBER 1969

L CRYSTAL I I
J'
In

CRYSTAL 2

6--1
A
'"[
9 CRYSTAL 3

5.m

I 1 I I I I I
-500 H)o xx) 300 400 500 O C

TEMPE!X4TURE
Fig. 5. Temperature tuning of LiNbO, for several pump w v h g t h s .
Data were obtained from the Sellmeier equatiom and [213. (From
Byer [%I.)

PHOTON E
N W IN ev
E

''k.
Fig.8. A n ~ ~ t u n i n g o f A D P a t 3 4 7 2 k a i s t h e a a g t e ~ ~ t h e p u m p
ing beam and the -direction of observation of spontaneoudy emitred
light. Thus, a=O" gives the tuning curve of a @inear osdhx. The
right-hand ordinate gives the approximate an& 6, betaraea the optic
5000
4 5001 axis and pump direction. (Magde and Mahr Mi.)

*
D(TERNltL FIcm FlEcD (Kv/an)
25

4000
-
a
-'=
..
;
-20 -10 0 IO 20 x) 40 $
VI
r
+
*C
-25 I
Fig. 6. Temperature tuning of ADP and KDP. These curves were ob- W
-1
tained by Dowley [24] using the spontaneous parametric emission w
technique discussed in Section VI. 3
i
t
d o o
86 (MINUTES)
Fig. 9. Electrooptic tuning. Wavelength shift as a function d t h e external
dc electric field; and oscillator signalwavelength as a function of 68,
the change in angle between 5 and the crystal @c ais.
~71.1
HARRIS:TUNABLE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS 2103

of the oscillator willbe a pumping powerwhichyields PUMP

somewhat less than about7 dB gain perpass.

IV. TUNING, SPECTRAL OUTPUT, AND STABILITY
C-AXIS
A . Tuning LtNbOl

As noted earlier, the position of the center of the para- IDLER

metric gain linewidth is determined by satisfaction of the I? $P
.

vector matching condition E, +Ei =I?,, and the frequency

+
condition os oi= 0,. For collinearly propagating for-
ward waves these are combined to yield (2).With the pump
frequency fixed, any process which changes the refractive k,

indices at the signal, idler, or pump wavelengths willtune the \ %

oscillator. Tuning methods include : temperature, angular PUMP SIGNAL
variation of the extraordinary refractive index, electro- Fig. 10.Schematic of noncollinear oscillator. Tuningisaccomplished
optic variation of the refractive indices, and, perhaps, byvarying theangle betweenthepumpandsignal cavity. (From
pressure tuning via the photoelastic effect. Of these, Falk and Murray [29].)
temperature or angular tuning may be used to tune over
broad ranges, and pressure or electric fields may be used 1.190-
for fine tuning.
Temperature tuning curves for LiNbO, for a number of
different pump wavelengths are shown in Fig. 5. The curves 1.170 -
were obtained numerically from the Sellmeier equations of -
Hobden and Warner [21]. They may be shifted by 30" to 1.150 -
100" by changes in crystal composition [22]. Giordmaine - 1\3/
and Miller [23] have experimentally temperature tuned a
LiNbO, oscillator over the range 7300 A- 19 300 A.
Fig. 6 shows the temperature tuning curves for ADP and
KDP pumped with the doubled 5145 A line ofargon. These
curves were obtained experimentally by Dowley[24] by
means of the parametric spontaneous emission method
which will be discussed in Section VI. Note that the full
visible spectrum is tuned by a variation of only 50°C.
Angular tuning curves for a LiNbO, parametric oscilla-
tor pumped by doubled 1.06 p [25], and for anADP
oscillator pumped by doubled ruby, are shown in Figs. 7
and 8 [26]. The first of these was obtained in an oscillator
experiment, and the second was obtained via spontaneous
parametric emission. The angle C#I in Fig. 7 is the comple- e (DEGREES)

ment of the internal angle between the optic axis and the Fig. 1 1 . Tuning of the noncollinear oscillator at different temperatures.
(From Falk and Murray [29].)
direction of propagation of the pump, i.e., I$ = O for 90"
phase matching. For the ADP oscillator a change of about
nately, as was done in the experiment of Fig. 10,the entire
8 O of the angle between the optic axis and pumpbeam tunes
cavity containing the nonlinear crystal is rotated. Results of
most of the visible spectrum. Though the angular tuning
this experiment are shown in Fig. 11 [29].
method is mechanical and potentially fast compared
If we let [ denote any variable which may be usedto vary
to temperature tuning, its disadvantage is the reduced gain
the refractive indices,and if we assume the pump frequency
which results from Poynting vector walk-off (Section 11-B).
fixed, then for collinear phase matching the rate of signal
Experimental results of electrooptic tuning are shown in
frequency tuning with ( is given by
Fig. 9 [27]. The oscillator was LiNb03 pumped by ruby
and had a tuning rate of about 6.7 A per kV per cm of ap-
plied electric field. The angular tuning rateof this oscillator (26)
is also shown. Electrooptic tuning has also been demon-
strated by Krivoshchekov et al. [28]. where b is a dispersive constant [31] given by
Another tuning technique is shown schematically in Fig.
10 [29]. In this case, the I; vector matching is not collinear b = >ak.
- - . ak,
[30] and the oscillator is tuned by varying the angle between aoi am,
the incoming pump beam and thesignal cavity. This type of In Section 11-A,the half-power gain linewidth was shown
tuning has theadvantage that thenonlinear crystal need not to be determined approximately by the condition (AkLI = 27r.
be rotated inside the optical cavity. Instead either the angle Noting that d o i = -Ams, then from (4), Ak= bAo,. Thus
of the input pump is varied via a beam deflector or alter- the full half-power gain linewidth in Hz is
2104 THE OF PROCEEDINGS IEEE, DECEMBER 1969

; i
I / -IDLER FREQUENCY w t
Fig. 13. Longitudinal modes of signal and idler cavities. Frequencies o1
and o2vertically in line on thediagram satisfyo1+ w , =os. The verti-
cal dashed line farthest to the left indicates the frequency
combination
for index matching. The adjacent line represents the nearest frequency
combination forwhich oscillation is possible. Sincethefrequency
1 , / $2 oftkt bw is comparable to the cavity linewidthAmc, oscillationactually
?*
occurs at the vertical dashed line at theright where &=O. (From
O ' L A i & & 7 b o L Giordmaine and Miller [ 1 1 I.)
TEMPERATURE - (OK)

Fig. 12. Dspemion constant b versustemperaturefor LN

i bO,

J.
at a
n u m k of pump waveiengths. Data were obtained from the Sellmeier
equations of Hobdea and Warner [21]. (From Byer [%I.)

1
lAfl -*
bL 'OUT

From (26)and (28)it is seen that xhaterials with small b in

't
general have large tuning rates, but also correspondingly

/
large linewidths. Also,near degeneracy wherethe linewidth
of an oscillator is large, it will, in general,tune much more 0
2

rapidly than whenfarfromdegeneracy. As an example,

4
KDP has a b that is about that of LiNbO,, and asa result
tunes much more rapidly (see Fig. 5 and 6). On the other
hand, the linewidth of a 1 cm crystal of KDP is about
40 cm", as compared to about 5 cm- for LiNbO,. '
The rate of change of the center of the parametric line-
width with respect to fluctuation of the pump frequency
has been examined by Kovrigin andByer [32].
B. Spectral Properties
The spectral character of the output of an oscillator is
determined by the width and saturating behavior of the P /PTHRESHOLD
gain lineshape, and by the interaction of its signal and idler Fig. 14. Poweroutputandlinewidthversus PJP, (threshold) of a CW
modes. Even for materials with relatively large b the half- argon pumped LiNbO, oscillator. (From Byer et al. [19].)
powergainwidth will typically be greater than 1 cm-'
(30 GHz); and a number of axial modes at the signal and mode whose sum frequency is equal to the frequency of a
idler frequencies will lie within the linewidth. For instance pump mode, can only occur for certain axial modes. As
for a 4 cm crystal of L i m o , with a pump at 4880 A and a shown in Fig. 13 the particular modeswhich happen to
signal at 6328 A, b=6.2 x lo-'' s/m yielding a half-power align may be far from the center of the gain linewidth.
width of 1.34cm-'. With mirrors placed on the ends of the Furthermore,as a result of temperature changes and
crystal the axial mode spacing would beabout 1.6 GHz and vibration, the modeswhich happento aligntypically
about 25 signal and idlermodeswouldexperiencesig- change very rapidly. This is particularly true when com-
nificant gain. Near degeneracy, typical observed linewidths bined with the fact that the pump frequency is itself usually
are greater than 100 cm- '. Fig. 12 shows the dispersive fluctuating [15]. For oscillators thus far constructed this
constant b for LiNbO, versus temperature at a number of fluctuation has had a time constant between about 10 p s
pump wavelengths. Corresponding signal and idler fre- . and 1 ms, and has often severelyreduced their average
quencies as a function of temperature are shown in Fig. 5. power output. Since the modes which align or nearly align
Parametric oscillators with both their signal and idler are typically clustered together in groups having a spacing
frequencies resonant pose a particularly severeproblem which is large compared to the axial mode spacing, this
[ 7 ] , [ll]. Since, as a result of dispersion, the axial mode effect has been termed a "cluster effect" [7], [l 11.
spacing of the signal and idler frequencies are slightly dif- The right scale of Fig.14 shows the total spectral width of
ferent, simultaneous resonance of a signal and an idler a 5145 A argon pumped CWoscillator 1191. The data were
HARRIS:TUNABLE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS 2105

Fig. 16. Schematic of frequency locking technique. The letters s, i, and p

denote the signal, idler, and pump. respectively. The gas transition is
assumed to absorb at only the signal frequency; and the mirrors are
assumedtohavehighreflectivityat only theidlerfrequency.The
vertical arrows in the LiNbOB crystals denote the direction of their
Fig. 15. Spectra of doubly and singly resonant oscillators.(a), (b), and (c) positive z axes. (From Hams [37].)
Spectra of the doubly resonant oscillator for increasing pump power.
(d) Spectra of a singly resonant oscillator. (From Bjorkholm [34].)
optical pumping of gaseous vibrational or rotational lines
will require frequency control of better than 0.03 cm- l .
obtained by taking a long-term exposure with a scanning One proposed approach which may make it possible to
Fabry-Perot etalon. With the oscillator operated about lock the output of an optical parametric oscillator onto a
two times above threshold, the spectral width approaches gaseous atomic absorption line is shown in Fig. 16 [37].
the theoretical 4 wavenumber linewidthof the 1.65 cm
The usual single nonlinear crystal is replaced by two non-
LiNbO, crystal. For weaker pump drives, only modes
linear crystals which have the direction of their + z axes
closer to A k = O were above threshold, andthe spectral
reversed. Between the reversed nonlinear crystals is placed
width is reduced. Average signal power output is also
the cell containing the gas to which it is desiredto lock the
shown. output frequency of the oscillator. If the absorbing transi-
The cluster problem may be eliminated by constructing
tion is at the signal frequency of the oscillator, then the
the oscillator with only its signal or its idler cavity, but not
oscillator is made resonant at only the idler frequency. As a
both, resonant. Feedback at the nonresonated frequency
result of the reversed positive axes, the parametric gain of
can be prevented by careful choice of mirrors, by the use of
the first crystal is partially cancelled by the second crystal.
an appropriate absorbing material in the oscillator, or by
That is, the relative phases of the signal, idler, and pumpon
means of noncollinear E vector matching. A collinear singly
entering the second crystal are such that instead of further
resonant oscillator of this type was first demonstrated by
gain the signal and idler decay to the values which they
Bjorkholm [33], [34], and some of his results are shown in
had on entering the first crystal. The pressure of an absorb-
Fig, 15. Spectra of a doubly resonant oscillator are shown ing gas is then adjusted until it is nearly opaque at the
in (a), (b), and (c) for increasing pump power. Oscillation pertinent atomic transition. The loss and phase shift of this
occurred in three clusters which had aspacing of about 12 A. gas prevents the gain cancellation in the second crystal, with
Part (d) shows the spectra of his singlyresonant oscillator in a resultant sharply peaked gain function centered at the
which, in all cases, clusters were absent. Other oscillators frequency of the atomic transition.
having only their signal or idler frequencies resonant have Bjorkholm has shown that it is possible to lock, at leaston
been constructed by Falk and Murray [29] and by Belyaev
a transient basis, the output of a high-power pulsed optical
et al. [35]. The oscillator of Falk and Murray was non-
parametric oscillator to an incident low level signal. In a
collinear and is shown schematically in Fig. 10. Though no recent experiment hesucceeded in locking a LiNbO,
clusters were observed, an additional unexplained spectral oscillator, pumped by a ruby laser, to astabilized CW YAG
component was often found a number of angstroms away
laser [38]. A minimum locking power of 1 mW, and a
from the primary component. Belyaev et al. also found a
locking range of about 15 A were obtained.
spectrum consisting of one or two lines spaced by a few
angstroms ; with the width of each individual line not ex-
ceeding 0.1 cm- '. V. SATURATION AND POWER OUTPUT
At this time an experimental study of the competition
If the level of the pumping field is above threshold, the
between the longitudinal modes of a singlecavity para-
signal and idler fields build up and deplete the pump as it
metric oscillator has not been accomplished A theoretical
passes throughthe crystal. Saturation occurs when the
study by Kreuzer [36] has shown that if the oscillator is
pump intensity, appropriately averaged over the length of
operated less than 4.81 times above threshold, that it should
the nonlinear crystal, is reduced to the point where single
saturate uniformly and in the steady state have only a single
pass gain equals single pass loss.
oscillating longitudinal mode. For an oscillator operated
We fist consider the case where onlythe signal frequency
further above threshold, the steady-state solution may con-
is resonant and determine the pumping power necessary
sist of twoor more longitudinal modes. For the latter situa-
to attain appreciable conversion efficiency. We assumethat
tion, the pump is periodically depleted and restored inside
the round-trip cavity lossand thusthe saturated single pass
the nonlinear crystal resulting in a saturated lineshape
gain at the signal frequencyare sufficiently smallso that the
which is broadened and double peaked.
signal field may beassumed constant over the length of the
nonlinear crystal. It should be noted that this is a small gain
C . Locking as opposed to a small power assumption. Equation (3a) and
Many experiments require an oscillator output with far (3c) maybesolved subject to E,=O, and Ep=Ep(0) at
greater stability than that presently available. For instance, z= 0. Taking E, as an undetermined constant, we find
2106 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, DECEMBER 1969

I
1
800

AkL[cos PL - j - sin BL
E , = E,(O) exp j - 3
2 Ak
28
where
+
Ak2/4]”’.
j? = [~iWpli~pdZIEs12
From ( 5 ) the generated signal power is related to the gen-
erated idler power, and thus

The single pass power gain G=(IE,(L)I’ - ~E,(O)~’)/)E,(O)~’

is now setequal to the round-trip power loss 2as.Thus

With the pump level Ep(0)fixed, \ES[is determined by the

Fig. 17. Output power of noncollinear single cavity oscillator.The dashed
solution of (31). At threshold, the [ES\= O and therefore curve shows the pump in the absence of the parametric interaction.
= O ( A k = O ) , yielding a threshold power in agreement with (From Fatk and Murray [29].)
(25). At line center, we see from (29), that the pump will be
completely depleted whenflL= 4 2 ;from (31), that this will
also be 100 percent efficient [a].
With powerdependent
occur at a pumping power equal to (7~/2)~ times the threshold
pump reflections absent, the generated signal and idler
pumping power [36]. If the value of the pumping field isin-
powers are given by
creased further, the pump will again begin to grow at the
expense of the signal and idler field. As noted at the end of
the last section, this spatially varying pump field creates an
interesting type of line broadening first pointed out by
Kreuzer [36]. where P, is the threshold pumping power. At four times
A parametric oscillator withonly its signalfrequency above threshold, 100 percent conversion efficiency is ob-
resonant has the advantage thatif the desired output of the tained. Fig. 18 shows the efficiency and the ratio of trans-
oscillator is taken at the idler frequency, then an optimum mitted-to-incident pump powerfor the doubly resonant
coupling problem is avoided. That is, at any drive level the oscillator with and without powerdependent reflections.
signal cavity should be made as lossless as possible. If the Byer et al. have recentlyconstructed a CW argon pumped
pump .is adjusted to (42)’ times its threshold value, then ringcavity parametric oscillator [41], showninFig. 19.
wi/W, of the incident pump power will be obtained at the The oscillator builds up in the direction in which the pump-
output [33]. In a recent experiment, Falk and Murray [29] ing wave is traveling and powerdependent reflections are
have obtained about 70 percent peakpower conversion avoided. Though 60 percent depletion of the incident
and 50 percent energy conversion from the incident ruby pumping beam wasobserved, as aresult of insul€icientout-
beam. As seen from the power-versus-time plots in Fig. 17, put coupling only a few milliwatts of output power were
greater energy conversion was prevented by the build-up obtained.
time of the oscillator. The schematic of this oscillator is Ammann et al. have recently obtained about 7 percent
shown in Fig. 10. average power conversion in a doubly resonant LiNbO,
We next consider the case where both the signal and idler oscillator directly pumped by a repetitivelyQ-switched
cavities are resonant. Here the signal and idler wavestravel Nd3+ :YAGlaser [42].
through the nonlinear media inboth the forward andback- Another interesting type of optical parametric oscillator
ward directions. When traveling in the backward direction, is obtained when the nonlinear crystal is placed inside the
they mix to produce a pump wave traveling in the opposite cavity of the pumping laser. The mirrors for the signal and
direction from the incident pump wave. As &stpointed out idler cavity may be coincident with those of the pumping
by Siegman [39], this results m a powerdependent reflec- laser or may be positioned using various types of beam
tion of the pump and a limiting ofthe transmitted pump to splitters. Oshman andHams [43]have showntheoretically
its threshold value. As a resuit, the maximum efficiency of that this type of oscillator may operate in several types of
such an oscillator is 50 percent and occurs at a pumppower regimes. These are : an efficient regime withoperating char-
equal to fourtimes the thmhold pump power. acteristics similar to those of the previouslydescribed
Bjorkholm has recently shown that if this backward re- oscillators; an inefficient regime in which the parametric
flection is avoided, the signal and idler resonant case may coupling in effectdrives the phase rather than the amplitude
HARRIS:TUNABLEOPTICALPARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS 2107

APERTURE

TOCHART
RECORDER

ARGON LASER

LASER
IicNc u1 (p)

PIP, -
Fig. 18. Efficiency and transmitted pump power of the doubly resonant
oscillator, with and without power dependent pump reflection.
PjP is the ratio of transmitted-to-incident pump power. (From
Bjorkholm (401.) kP
(b)
Fig. 20. (a) Apparatus for viewing spontaneous parametric emission.
yM2 rOVEN
(b) k vector matching. (From Byer and Hams [31].)

The transition rate forspontaneous parametric emission

‘LINbOs CRYSTAL
may be calculated by forming an interaction Hamiltonian
Fig. 19. Ring cavity parametric oscillator where M, and M, are 5 cm
dielectric mirrors, and M, is a flat gold mirror. (Byer et nl. [41],)
based on the nonlinear susceptibility, and then applying
first order perturbation theory. Kleinman [51] and Tang
[52] have shown that this approach yields the now-accepted
of the oscillation and where a shift of the signal, idler, and
result that the parametric emission may be considered to
pump frequencies from their normal positions is observed;
arise as the result of the mixing of a fictitious zero-point
and a repetitively pulsing regime, characterized by short
flux, at both the signal and idler frequency, with the in-
pulses of output power at the signal and idler. A stability
coming pump beam [31]. The effective zero-point flux is
analysis of these various regions shows that they are mu-
obtained by allowing one half-photon to be present in each
tually exclusive and canbe experimentallychosen by chang-
blackbody mode of a quantizing volume. The result is a
ing the laser gain, the oscillator output coupling, or the
generated polarization which attempts to radiate at all fre-
strength of the nonlinear interaction.
quencies and in all directions. Its ability to radiate effec-
VI. SPONTANEOUS PARAMETRIC tively is determined by the degree of velocity synchronism
EMISSION with the free wave at the given frequency and in the given
When light from a pumping laser is incident on a non- direction.
linear crystal, there is spontaneous probability that pump A typical experiment for viewingspontaneous parametric
photons will split into signal and idler photons. Without emission is shown in Fig. 20. The pump propagates along
the need for optical resonators at either the signal or idler the length of a L i m o 3 crystal and is polarized along its
wavelengths,emission at thesewavelengthsmaybe ob- optic axis. The signal and idler waves are ordinary waves
served. This emission has alternately been termed as spon- and make angles 4 and $, respectively, withthe pumpwave.
taneous parametric emission, parametric fluorescence, For a plane wave pump, for small 4 and +,the incremental
parametric noise, parametric luminescence, and parametric srontaneously radiated signal power [31]in a bandwidth a h
scattering [MI-[49]. It is analogous to laser fluorescence and angle d4 is given by
or more exactly to spontaneous Ramanand Brillouin scat- 4)4d4 do,
dP, = BL2Ppf(os, (33)
tering. It is important since even at pump fields which are
far toolow to attain oscillation it may still be observedand where
used to obtain temperature, angular, orelectrooptic tuning
curves of potential oscillator materials. The datafor Figs. 6
and 8 were obtained using this technique. The fact that
the spontaneously emitted power varies linearly with pump 4) is the velocity synchronism reduction factor
and f (us,
power and is independent of both thearea and coherence of given by
the pumping beam, also makes it a useful tool for the mea-
surement of optical nonlinearities. (34)
Spontaneous parametric emissionwas predicted and
studied by Louise11 et al. [47] and others, and was first ob- where lAkl
is the length of the wave vector mismatch taken
served at optical frequencies by Akhmanov et ai. [48], in the direction of the pump. For small angles and small
Magde and Mahr [26], and Harris et al. [50]. dispersion Ak may be written
2108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, DECEMBER 1969

70 - x=, 4880 A
X,= 6328 a
Pp=Iw
60 - , J - - - m h )

- ,i,,Il
50 -
8.0.49' 8.0.
0-

-
- 40-
70
.
I

an -10 IO 30 IO 20 30
' 30-
p"
0 20 0

-- 4r 4r
.
'E

3
3 t A
If ?

Oo 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.1 1.2

-10 0 10 20 30 0 IO 20 X)

82 (deg2)
Fig. 21. Total spontaneously emitted power versus e', showing theoreti-
cal and experimental results. (FromByer and Hams [31].)
, I , I , ,)'

e= e=o.070
+ bdo, + g+',
0.100

Ak = (35)
I I
where
-10 0 IO 20 30 0 IO 20 30
9 = k&pPki, AX; (cm-') AA;'(crn+)
and b is defined in (27). As a result of normal dispersion, b Fig. 22. Spectraldistribution of spontaneous poweratdifferentaccep-
is negative, and thus higher frequencies will be obtained tance angles. Part (c) shows experimental points normalized to peak
of the theoretical curve.(From Byer and Hams [31].)
farther off angle.
Combining (33), (34), and (351 the total radiated power
over all frequenciesin a given acceptance angle 8 is

P, = /3L2Pp j+mjoe+
-m
sinc2.[#os g+')L]+d+ do,, (36)

which may be integrated [31] to yield

P, = (/3LPp/b)d2. (37)
The total spontaneously emitted signal power thus varies Fig.23. Kleinman'smatchingsurface [51].
linearly with the accepted solid angle ne2,pump power, and
crystal length. Noting (33) it is seen to vary as the fourth case of emissiontangent to this surface both the power and
power of signal frequency and the first power of the idler bandwidth of the spontaneously emitted signal are greatly
frequency. enhanced. This effect can be considered to arise as a result
The ratio of the spontaneously emitted power to the of a greater number of idler modes which maycontribute to
incident pumping power as a function of O2 is shown in the emission in the given direction and is analogous to the
Fig. 21 for a 1.1 cm crystal of LiNbO, and a CW 4880 A increased spontaneous emission which occurs when near
pump. The triangular points are experimental and the solid degeneracy.
line is theoretical. Kleinman also discusses a background spontaneous emis-
The spectral distribution of the spontaneously emitted sion which is independent of crystal length and which oc-
light as a function of the accepted angle 8 is shown in Fig. curs in directions where phase matching is not possible
22. The theoretical curves were obtained by numerically [51]. This nonphase matched emission is muchsmaller than
integrating (36). As 8 is decreased the bandwidth is at first the phase matched emission and has thus far not been ob-
reduced, but then approaches the limiting bandwidth ( l / b L ) served.
of a collinear interaction. Giallorenzi and Tanghave observedand discussed spon-
A detailed study of spontaneous parametric emission has taneous parametric emission for the case where the idler
been given by Kleinman [51]. He makes use of a matching frequency liesin the infrared absorbing region of the
surface, such as is shown in Fig. 23, which is the locus of crystal [53], and they find the intensity to be approximately
signal and idler E vectors such that M=O. For the special the same as it would have been had there been no absorp-
HARRIS:TUNABLE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS 2109

F
10,000
In
t
BOULE 103
1.65. cm LONG
t Sc lqS

a
K
W
3
8

- a-HI0
LiNbO3

TEMPERATURE (DEGf3EE.S C )
(a)
I 1

I a Q )
I 11'1 I I I 'lllli I I I I I
loo+ 0P
1 IP 0.Ip
TRANSPARENCYWAVELENGTH

Fig. 24. d2/n3and transparency of some phase matchable

nonlinear optical materials.

tion. With one frequency in the absorbing region, spon-

TEMPERATURE (DEGREES CI
taneous emission provides a convenient means to obtain the
dispersion curve in the lossy region. (b)
Fig. 25. Secondharmonicgenerationversustemperature for good and
Recently four-photon parametric noise, corresponding to bad crystals of LiNb03. A high quality crystal should have a half-
satisfaction of frequency and L vector conditions of the form power width of about 0.64" C / L where L is its length in centimeters.
w p+ up= w, + miand E, + E,= E, + E j , has been observed in
water by Weinberg [54] and in calcite by Meadors et al. which phase matching occurs, there is some uncertainty to
[55]. The potential advantage of a four-frequency process of the values in this figure.
this type is that the pump may be a lower frequency than The KDP-ADP type materials are theonly ones with UV
the signal. Using a ruby pump, Meadors er al. tuned from transparency [57]-[59] and, as seen in Figs. 6 and 8, allow
4300 A to 5900 A. For a four-photon process of this type, convenient visible tunability. These crystals might also be
unlike the three-photon process, focusing of the pump is of used to double a tunable visible source into the 2700 h-
consequence. 3000 A region [57]. Unfortunately, Dowley has found that
If the parametric gain is sufficient,spontaneous emission these crystals exhibit some form of UV damage which limits
may be directly amplified without using optical resonators. the average power which may be obtained when doubling
One technique, demonstrated by Akmanov et al. [56] uses the 5145 A line of argon [58]. KDP-ADP type materials
multiple reflections between roof top prisms. With a pump have been found to withstand very high optical power den-
density of 70 MW/cm2 of doubled 1.06 ,u light, 100 kW of sities (>400 MW/cm2) before exhibiting surface damage
tunable radiation was obtained. The nonlinear crystal used [ 6 0 ] and are particularly useful for high power Q-switched
was ADP, andtuning was accomplished by crystal rotation. applications. When operated near their Curie temperature
Observed linewidths were about 1-2 A. these materials should also allow wide electrooptic tuning
[61 I.
VII. NONLINEAR OPTICAL MATERIALS LiNbO, has a very useful visible and IR transparency
From theconsiderations of the previous sections, a num- range, and is the most widely used oscillator material at
ber of desirable qualities for materials to be used in optical this time[62]-[65]. Crystals ofexcellent optical quality
parametric oscillators may be formulated. These are: high are now available in 4 to 5 cm lengths. Great care must be
nonlinearity; phase matchability and, in particular, 90" taken to grow this material such that its refractive index
phase matchability;narrow linewidth (large b ) ; high does not vary with distance in the crystal [ a ] , [67] k vector
transparency and freedom fromdamage; and large variation matching for a 4 cm crystal requires that the variation of
of refractive indices with temperature, angle, pressure, or refractive indices be lessthan 10- '. It has been found that
electric field. Fig. 24 shows d2/n3 (see Section 11) and the this is best achieved bygrowing from a melt which isabout
transparency range of a number of phase matchable mate- 2 percent lithium deficient. Fig. 25 shows second harmonic
rials. Normalization is to d2/n3for KDP. Since both dand n power versustemperature for a high quality and alow qual-
are dependent on the particular angle and frequencies at ity LiNbO, crystal. For the poor crystal, the refractive
 2110 DECEMBER PROCEEDINGS OF THE
IEEE, 1969

index varies withdistance, and different parts of the crystal xijk(-o3, 0 1 , O Z ) = x"JIk (o 1 3 -O3,

phase match at different temperatures. For second har- (40)

= Xk ji( wZ3 ~ 1 -03).
,
monic generation from 1.15 p, the half-power width for a
high quality crystal should be about 0.64"C/L, where L is the Overall permutation symmetry in effect states that if three
length in centimeters of the nonlinear crystal. As a result of frequencies are involved in a lossless nonlinear process,
optical refractive index damage, LiNbO, must be main- that irrespective of which is doing the generating, or being
tained at a temperature greater than about 170°C when in generated, the nonlinear coefficient governing the process is
the presence of intense visible radiation [68]. In a repeti- the same.
tively pulsed systemsurface damage probably occurs some- The above x i j k are related to the diJi which are used to
where inthe vicinity of20 MW/cmZ. describe second harmonic generation by
BazNaNbSOIS has a similar transparency range as
LiNbO, and a d2/n3 whichis almost tentimes greater Xijk(-20?w, = 2dijk(-20, o, (41)
[69]-[71]. However, available crystals havelengths of 4
mm or less, and typically exhibit severe striations. At room Since diJx is symmetric in the subscripts j and k, it is ex-
temperature the material does not exhibit refractive index pressed in the usual abbreviated notation where dijk=dil
damage, but on the other handits phase transition at about according to 1= 1, 2, 3 , 4 , 5,6 for j k = 11, 22, 33, 23, 13, 12,
3 W , and the decrease of its nonlinearity above this transi- respectively. For losslessmediathesecoefficientsmaybe
tion, limit its temperature tuning range. shown to be real, and their small dispersion over the trans-
Two possible crystals for oscillation further in the in- parency range of the crystal is usually neglected. In cases
frared are proustite (Ag,AsS,) and CdSe [72]-[74]. where the direction of optical propagation is not along the
Though proustite has been usedfor mixing experiments, an principal crystal axes, it is necessary to take the projection
oscillator using it has not yet been constructed. As a result of the generated polarizations in the directions of the
of its large birefringence, only off angle E vector matching respective optical E fields. The resulting coefficients have
will be possible. Also, the material is reported to damage been termed as effective nonlinear coefficients, and their
relatively easily, i.e., at about 1 MW/cm2. An absorption value for a number of uniaxial crystal classes have been
band with absorption of.about 1 cm- at 10.6 p will prob- tabulated by Boyd and Kleinman [13].
ably prevent working with the COz laser.
CdSe has a high nonlinearity [74] and should be phase VIII. TUNABLE FAR-INFRARED GENERATION
matchable near 90"for a pump at about2.5 p. There is great interest in extending tunable source tech-
Tellurium had attracted earlier interest when Pate1 used it niques to the farIR region of the spectrum, where relatively
both fordoubling COz [75] and toobtain a parametric gain conventional sources are at their poorest. Assuming other
of 3 dB at 18 p [76]. d2/n3is about 1.7 lo6 on the normalized factors constant, the pump power necessary to achieve a
scale of Fig. 21. However, the material is hard to handle given gain increases inversely as the square of the lower fre-
and has a relatively high loss. quency. Also, in the far IR losses are typically somewhat
Some other possible nonlinear crystals for use in oscil- greater than in the visible or near IR, andthus significantly
lator applications are discussed in [77]-[84]. larger nonlinearities are required. Such nonlinearities may
The conventions for specifying optical nonlinearity have be obtained either by making use of a very high indexmate-
caused some confusion, and may be summarized as follows rial, such as tellurium, or by operating with the IR fre-
[13]. If the electric field and polarization waves are written quency below the Reststrahl frequencies, and thus gaining
in the form the contribution of the lattice to the nonlinear coefficient.
For instance, in LiNbO,, the nonlinear coefficient governing
E,(?) = Re [Ei(w)exp jwt]
the interaction between a microwave frequency and two
and optical frequencies is approximately 30 times ,greater than
the nonlinear coefficient relating three similarly polarized
9 J t ) = Re [9,(w) expjwt], (38)
optical frequencies. (This may be deduced by converting the
then for three interacting frequencies with w , = w1 + w 2 , light modulation coefficient rsl into an equivalent d co-
the generated polarization is given by efficient.) Two other principal changes may occur when one
of the interacting frequencies lies below the lattice absorp-
9ii(w3) = Xijk(-w3? O1,02)Ej(01)Ek(oZ)
j k
tion frequencies. First, the lattice contribution to the low-
frequency dielectric constant often creates the situation
9ii(wZ) =12j k
xi,i(-w2, - 0 1 , w3)E7(01)Ek(w,) (39) where the sum of the signal and idler li vectors is greater
than the pump I; vector. This allows noncollinear phase
gi(W1) = Xijk(-wl, - 0 2 9 w3)Ef(w2)Ek(w3)* matching of three wavesof the same polarization. (By
j k
contrast, as a result of normal dispersion, at optical fre-
The nonlinear susceptibility coefficients xijk satisfy what is quencies (k,(+ lkil < lk,l.) Second, it is usually necessaryto
termed as overall permutation symmetry, which states that include the effect of losson the low-frequency wave.
the subscripts and frequencies may be permuted in any As the IR frequency approaches one of the vibrational
order. For instance modes of the lattice an increasing fraction of its energy is
HARRIS:TUNABLE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS 2111

351L
4.03 I I 1 I I
5.0

I
\ x 104
\

--
\
n
0
300
-
\
-4.0 '5
N
v)
\
1 -
- a
-,so-
\
v)
\ I +
z
w0
- 3.0 E
W
0

z
e
+
- 2.0 0
a
0
VI
m
K
W
A
- 1.0 e
0 I I I I I I 1 )
0 5.000 10.000 15,000 20,000
ICI (crn-11

'
Fig. 26. Dispersion of the A , symmetry 248 cm- polariton mode of 480 400
I
320
\. 240
0
LiNbO,. Thevertical lines intersectingthedispersioncurve denote
thevalue of 6 necessary forvectormatching.(FromYarborough RwkIn-~)
et al. [89].) Fig. 27. Parametric gain,absorption mfficient, andratio of W to
Stokes power, as a function of frequency near the 366 cm-' lattice
resonance of gallium phosphide. (a) Relative parametric gain. (b) IR
absorptioncoefficient. (c)Ratio of IR to Stokes power densities
mechanical rather than electromagnetic, and in this region (SI&). The solid portion of the curve denotes the region over which
it is often termed a polariton mode [MI. Gain results from phase matching is possible. (From Henry and Garrett [%I.)
the interaction with both the vibrational and electromag-
netic portions of the mode; and tothe extent that the vibra-
tional portion is important, it maybe considered as a The slow variation of the gain coefficient and its approach
tunable Raman gain [86], [87]. '
to zero at about 250 cm- is a result of destructive inter-
In two recent experiments, Gelbwachs et al. [88] and ference between the parametric and Raman type portions
Yarborough et al. [89] have obtained tunable radiation in of the gain coefficient. This interference has been verified
the vicinity ofthe A symmetry 248 cm- polariton mode of experimentally by Faust and Henry [91].
LiNbO,. The dispersion diagram for this mode is shown in Though the resonant behavior sf the infrared absorption
Fig. 26. The vertical lines intersecting the dispersion curve does not substantially affect the gain,itmay greatly in-
denote the value of the angle 6 between the pump and the fluence the production of infrared radiation. Henry and
Stokes beams whichisnecessary for li vector matching. Garrett [90] have shown that the ratio of infrared to Stokes
(In analogy with the usual Raman process, the upper fre- powers is approximately
quency is termed as the Stokes wave). As 8 is varied, the mi G
oscillator is tuned. In the Gelbwachs et al. experiment [MI, &RIfLokes = - -'
tuning was accomplished by varying the angle between the 0, aIR
laser beam and the axis of a high-Q resonator. In the Yar- where G is the gain and am is the infrared loss coefficient.
borough er al. experiment [89]: opposite faces of the crystal As seen in Fig. 27, though in the vicinity of the resonance
were polished flat and parallel and an external resonator the gain is relatively unaffected,the IR power drops sharply.
was not employed. Infrared tuning from 50 p to 238 p was Far-infrared radiation has also been obtained by differ-
obtained with a conversion efficiency to the Stokes fre- ence frequency mixing ofhigher frequencies. Van Tran and
quency of greater than 50 percent. Though infrared powers Patel [92] haverecently reported the useof a magnetic
were not measured, it was estimated that about 70 watts field to achieve phase matched difference frequency genera-
were generated inside the crystal at E. z 50 p , tion in InSb. Phase matching was accomplished by varying
As the infrared frequency approaches the lattice reso- the cyclotron frequency and thus the free carrier contribu-
nance, both the absorption coefficient and the nonlinear tion to the refractive index. Discrete tuning from 95 p to
susceptibility become resonately large, though in such a 105 p was obtained by mixing a number of wavelengths of
manner as to leave the gain relatively unchanged. Fig. 27 two synchronously Q-switched COz lasers. Previously,
shows theoretical results of Henry and Garrett [90]as the nonphase matched far-infrared generation has beenre-
infrared frequency is swept through the 366 cm- lattice ' ported by Zernike [93].
resonance of gallium phosphide. The absorptioncoefficient, Two other approaches to tunable generation in the far
parametric gain, and the ratio of generated infrared to infrared are backward wave oscillation in a material with
Stokes radiation areshown. The solid portion of the curves low birefringence such as LiTaO, [94], [95], and Raman
indicate the region over which phase matching is possible. down shifting of higher frequency tunable radiation.
2112 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, DECEMBER 1969

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