Red beam generation based on aperiodically poled lithium niobate

We propose a novel device with a simple architecture for high-power red beam generation. The device is an optical parametric generator based on an aperiodically poled LiNbO3 grating in which both the optical parametric amplification and sum frequency generation processes are simultaneously phase matched. The pump is a quasi-continuous-wave laser operating at 1064 nm. Aperiodic gratings which enable simultaneous phase matching of the two processes were designed using a method that gives the flexibility to adjust the relative strength of these two processes. A model that takes the diffraction of the beams into account was developed to characterize the red beam generation performance of the device depending on the parameters: the relative strength of these processes, the length of the crystal, the average pump power, and the pump beam waist radius. If one uses the 2-D Fourier transform in the solution of the coupled-mode equations, the computation power required for performing such a characterization on a personal computer is prohibitively large. Owing to the circular symmetry of the system, we employ the Hankel transform to overcome this bottleneck. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.