Coupling of coherent optical fields in the process of second harmonic generation

Davıd L. Andrews, Philip Allcock

Xiaohui Zhao, Lailin Ji, Dong Liu +9 more

In this Letter, we study the second-harmonic (SH) generation of temporally low-coherence light using the statistical optics method. By introducing the statistical characteristics of low-coherence light into the nonlinear coupled wave equation, we predict the self-convolution relationship between the power spectral density of the second-harmonic and that of the fundamental wave and demonstrate it in experiments. The effects of phase matching and group velocity matching on the second-harmonic bandwidth and conversion efficiency are analyzed, which is beneficial to improve the efficiency of low-coherent SH light. Combining the statistics optics and nonlinear optics, our research provides a suitable mathematical model for the study of nonlinear frequency conversion processes of temporally low-coherence light. Due to its statistical characteristics and temporal incoherence, low-coherence SH light would have further applications in uniform illumination, quantum optics, metrology, and so on.

Davıd L. Andrews

Youbin Yu, Fengmin Ji, Zhongtao Shi +3 more

Abstract Three-color continuous-variable (CV) entangled beams can be produced by single-pass cascaded sum-frequency processes of third-harmonic generation by quasi-phase-matching technique in only one optical superlattice. Firstly, second-harmonic field is generated by the first double-frequency process of the fundamental field. Then, the third-harmonic field can be generated by the second cascaded sum-frequency process between the second-harmonic and the fundamental fields by quasi-phase-matching technique in the same optical superlattice. By using the quantum stochastic method, we investigated the conversion dynamics of the cascaded sum-frequency processes and the quantum correlation nature among the fundamental, second-harmonic, and third-harmonic fields. The results show that the higher conversion efficiency of third-harmonic generation can be achieved with the larger nonlinear coupling parameter of the second cascaded sum-frequency process. We also show that the fundamental, second-, and third-harmonic beams are CV entangled with each other according to the necessary and sufficient CV entanglement criterion. This scheme of three-color entanglement generation without involving optical cavity is easy to realize in experiment. Moreover, the three-color entangled beams are separated by an octave in frequency which has potential applications in quantum communication and computation networks.

M. Kozierowski, Vladimir I. Man’ko

K. Hakuta, L. Marmet, Boris Peter Stoicheff

Resonantly enhanced second-harmonic generation in atomic hydrogen was investigated near 121.6 nm. With the application of a dc electric field, it is shown that coupling of the 2s and 2p states produces resonantly enhanced nonlinear susceptibility and reduced absorption at the second-harmonic wavelength, resulting in an increased net efficiency of the second-harmonic-generation process.