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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Boosting efficiency and accurate modeling of parametric down-conversion processes

Joseph W. Haus, Anup R. Pandey, Peter Powers

Published Feb 12, 2009• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Conversion efficiency is boosted by using tandem crystal optical parametric amplifier geometry. We have undertaken comprehensive numerical modeling of the optical systems, where the output beam for the first stage are calculated and then propagated to the second stage. As a concrete example periodically poled lithium niobate crystals are experimentally examined. The phase and amplitude information about the pump and signal beams were retrieved using the Fresnel phase retrieval method and used as input in the theory. This enabled real laboratory conditions to be modeled. Subsequently, the amplitude and phase of the complex pump and signal beam from the crystal was calculated and the results were validated by experiments. Non-collinear interactions in the second stage also yielded an efficient idler output over a broad range of temperatures. ZnGeP2 crystals were used in the numerical simulations with first and second stage amplification. We predicted an idler energy increase by a more than a factor of 3.

DOI
10.1117/12.816582

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Conversion efficiency is boosted by using tandem crystal optical parametric amplifier geometry. We have undertaken comprehensive numerical modeling of the optical systems, where the output beam for the first stage are calculated and then propagated to the second stage. As a concrete example periodically poled lithium niobate crystals are experimentally examined. The phase and amplitude information about the pump and signal beams were retrieved using the Fresnel phase retrieval method and used as input in the theory. This enabled real laboratory conditions to be modeled. Subsequently, the amplitude and phase of the complex pump and signal beam from the crystal was calculated and the results were validated by experiments. Non-collinear interactions in the second stage also yielded an efficient idler output over a broad range of temperatures. ZnGeP2 crystals were used in the numerical simulations with first and second stage amplification. We predicted an idler energy increase by a more than a factor of 3.
We present a numerical model of a multi-crystal approach that increases the quantum efficiency of a parametric amplifier. Here is a two-crystal approach where the second stage crystal uses the signal energy from the first stage to amplify the desired idler wavelength. The numerical model allows for arbitrary input beam profiles and it can accommodate multiple crystals and optical elements. In this study a pair of PPLN crystals was modeled leading to more than double the idler output energy. The maximum M2 value for the output idler beam calculated was 5.2.
A two-stage periodically poled lithium niobate parametric amplifier is used to boost the idler wave energy by almost a factor of three near the degenerate wavelength of the second stage. For nondegenerate values, the idler wave energy is boosted by a factor of two. Our experimental results validate a numerical model that includes arbitrary beam profiles, beam walkoff, pump depletion, and optical elements between crystals. Experimental performance of the whole system was found to be much more stable over a wide range of temperatures due to noncollinear phase-matching conditions in the second stage.
Using a phase retrieval algorithm on a set of irradiance measurements both the local amplitude and phase of a coherent field beam profile are extracted. As a concrete application, we study a high-gain optical downconversion process in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN). For both the pump and signal wave beam profiles, measurements were made along the optical axis. The retrieved phase profiles were used in our nonlinear beam propagation codes to predict output amplitude and phase profile of the pump and signal fields after propagating through a PPLN crystal. The retrieval of the phase profile together with the amplitude is reported here under different conditions in a high-gain system.
We report the efficient generation of high-gain parametric down-conversion, including pump depletion, with pump powers as low as 100 µW (energies 0.1 µJ/pulse) and conversion efficiencies up to 33%. In our simple configuration, the pump beam is tightly focused into a bulk periodically poled lithium niobate crystal placed in free space. We also observe a change in the photon number statistics for both the pump and down-converted beams as the pump power increases to reach the depleted pump regime. The experimental results are a clear signature of the interplay between the pump and the down-converted beams in highly efficient parametric down-conversion sources.