Backward optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers

Degenerate backward optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers have been considered, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. When the pump intensity is four times the threshold pump intensity, the conversion efficiency reaches a maximum value. On the other hand, for nondegenerate optical parametric oscillators, the conversion efficiency always increases as the pump intensity increases. This behavior is different from those for forward optical parametric oscillators. In either configuration, the oscillation can occur without an external feedback. There is, however, a distributed feedback provided through the opposite propagation directions of the signal and idler. The threshold pump intensities for the oscillators can be achieved by the lasers currently available based on quasi-phase matching in several structures. As the input intensity for the backward parametric wave increases, the gain for this wave decreases dramatically if the pump intensity is on the order of the threshold or higher. When the input intensity is much larger than the threshold pump intensity, there is almost no gain regardless of the level of the pump intensity