Femtosecond parametric generation in ZnGeP/sub 2/

Author

Petrov, Valentin ; Rotermund, Fabian ; Noack, Ferenc ; Schunemann, P.

Author_Institution

Max-Born-Inst., Berlin, Germany

fYear

1999

fDate

28-28 May 1999

Firstpage

34

Lastpage

35

Abstract

Summary form only given. ZnGeP/sub 2/ is transparent between 0.7 and 12 /spl mu/m and possesses the highest (d/sub 14/=75 pm/V) nonlinearity of all commercially available birefringent nonlinear optical crystals. These properties are very attractive for traveling wave optical parametric generation using short pump pulses to produce tunable signal and idler pulses in the mid-infrared (MIR). Recently 1-ps short MIR pulses were generated with a ZnGeP/sub 2/ optical parametric generator (OPG) pumped between 2.9 and 3.5 /spl mu/m by a second OPG based on MgO:LiNbO/sub 3/. Going to shorter pump pulses increases the role of the group velocity mismatch (GVM) and requires shorter crystal lengths. Consequently the anomalous near-infrared (NIR) absorption near the band-edge becomes a less stringent limitation on the pump wavelength. We report for the first time to our knowledge on femtosecond operation of a ZnGeP/sub 2/ OPG.

Keywords

birefringence; germanium compounds; optical materials; optical parametric devices; optical pulse generation; optical tuning; ternary semiconductors; transparency; zinc compounds; 0.7 to 12 mum; 2.9 to 3.5 mum; MgO:LiNbO/sub 3/; ZnGeP/sub 2/; anomalous near-infrared absorption; band-edge; birefringent nonlinear optical crystals; commercially available crystals; crystal lengths; femtosecond operation; femtosecond parametric generation; group velocity mismatch; idler pulses; mid-infrared region; nonlinearity; optical parametric generator; pump pulses; pump wavelength; short pump pulses; traveling wave optical parametric generation; tunable signal pulses; Biomedical optical imaging; Electromagnetic wave absorption; Laser tuning; Nonlinear optics; Optical attenuators; Optical pulse generation; Optical pumping; Optical sensors; Pump lasers; Ultrafast optics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 1999. CLEO '99. Summaries of Papers Presented at the Conference on

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-595-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.1999.833842

Filename

833842