The tunable bandwidth and parametric bandwidth are investigated theoretically and numerically for periodically poled LiNbO₃ based optical parametric amplification. For two different optical parametric amplification geometries, which we called as geometry I and geometry II respectively according to different positions of the wave vector k_s and k_m with respect to wave vector k_p, both the grating period of PPLN and the noncollinear angle θ have optimal values when signal beam can be amplified in a maximum tunable range. With the increase of temperature, the optimal grating period nearlinearly decreased while the optimal noncollinear angle θ almost unchanged. An equation is derived to achieve the optimal grating period for different temperatures. Under the same conditions, the tunable bandwidth we achieved by employing geometry I is closed to that of geometry II. Considering the stability of tunable bandwidth, geometry II should be chose for the actual optical parametric amplification geometry because the tunable bandwidth is insensitive to the small deviation of θ when employing it. The parametric bandwidth varied with grating period and noncollinear angle θ. Compared with the change of θ, parametric bandwidth is sensitive to the variation of grating period. When achieving maximum and flat parametric bandwidth, the optimal grating period and optimal noncollinear angle θ are equal to those at which we obtained the maximum tunable bandwidth.

Date Published: 6 October 2010
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 7655, 5th International Symposium on Advanced Optical Manufacturing and Testing Technologies: Advanced Optical Manufacturing Technologies, 76551R (6 October 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.865982

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7655:
5th International Symposium on Advanced Optical Manufacturing and Testing Technologies: Advanced Optical Manufacturing Technologies
Li Yang; Yoshiharu Namba; David D. Walker; Shengyi Li, Editor(s)