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IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics

Experimental Performance of a Two-Stage Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate Parametric Amplifier

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

Published Jan 1, 2008• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1109/jqe.2007.911706

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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.
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.
Hybridized parametric amplification (HPA), a recent method to achieve high-efficiency parametric amplification by suppressing back-conversion with idler second harmonic generation, has been demonstrated so far only by birefringent phase matching. In this work, we demonstrate HPA by quasi-phase matching (QPM) in quasiperiodic-poled lithium niobate. QPM greatly expands the tuning range of HPA, while avoiding the limitations imposed by spatial walkoff of noncollinear beams. Since HPA has two concurrent processes, QPM requires a quasiperiodic grating with longitudinal spatial frequency peaks at both the parametric amplification and idler second harmonic generation phase mismatches. We investigate several grating designs for high-efficiency HPA in the near-infrared range. Quantum efficiencies of 70-80% are possible for devices pumped at 1030 nm, for both femtosecond and picosecond duration regimes. Pulse energies over 1 mJ can be accommodated using a chirped pump. However, devices must be designed carefully around the propagation effects of temporal walk-off and self-phase modulation.
An optical parametric amplifier (OPA) has been demonstrated in bulk, periodically poled lithium niobate and is shown to operate with a noise figure well below the classical limit. In contrast to conventional OPA's, this device uses quasi-phase matching to provide the coupling between the pump and the signal. Comparison of the measured performance with that of a theoretical model reveals that the main intrinsic contribution to the output noise is due to spatial and temporal mode mixing, which arises as a consequence of tight focusing of the incident beams. Factors that affect the performance of this amplifier are identified theoretically and their relative importance investigated for both amplification and squeezing.
We propose and experimentally demonstrate phase-regenerative wavelength conversion in periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides, using either: a single-stage implementation based on a simultaneous combination of two cascaded second-order nonlinear effects in a single periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide, or a two-stage implementation where two separate devices are used in sequence to give rise to the same nonlinear effects. The phase regeneration properties of the proposed wavelength conversion schemes are also investigated.