Letter abstract
Nature Photonics 1, 459 - 462 (2007)
Published online: 1 August 2007 | doi:10.1038/nphoton.2007.137
Subject Categories: Lasers, LEDs and light sources | Nonlinear optics | Novel materials and engineered structures
Mirrorless optical parametric oscillator
Carlota Canalias1,2 & Valdas Pasiskevicius1,2
Abstract
Parametric interaction of counterpropagating photons has the unique property of automatically establishing distributed feedback and thus realizing novel sources of coherent and tunable radiation, such as mirrorless optical parametric oscillators. This device does not require alignment or any optical components other than the second-order nonlinear medium itself1. Here we present the first experimental demonstration of such an oscillator, which was made feasible by quasi phase-matching in a nonlinear photonic structure with submicrometre periodicity. This type of oscillator has been extensively discussed as a theoretical possibility1, 2, 3, 4, 5. It generates signal and idler waves in the near- and mid-infrared, respectively, and exhibits unique and useful spectral properties. The oscillator signal is essentially a wavelength-shifted replica of the pump spectrum, and the bandwidth of the idler is two orders of magnitude narrower than that of the pump. It also has very low output wavelength sensitivity to temperature variations.
- Laser Physics, Applied Physics Department, Royal Institute of Technology, AlbaNova University Center, Roslagstullsbacken 21, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- These authors contributed equally to this work
Correspondence to: Carlota Canalias1,2 e-mail: cc@laserphysics.kth.se
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