Feature
Second harmonic generation in periodically-poled LiNbO3
G.A. Magel, E.J. Lim, M.M. Fejer, and R.L. Byer
Compact, solid-state sources of coherent blue light have applications in biomedicine, displays, printing, and optical storage. Because blue semiconductor diode lasers are not currently available, techniques for the efficient nonlinear optical frequency conversion of infrared diode lasers are being developed. Materials with high nonlinearity
and good optical quality are therefore in demand. Engineering
the optical properties of a well-studied material
such as lithium niobate (LiNbO3 ) provides an alternative
to the search for entirely new materials. Using quasiphase-
matching in LiNbO3 , we have accomplished collinear
cw second harmonic generation (SHG) with wavelengths
and nonlinear coefficients that have been impossible
to phase-match using only the material birefringence.
Publish Date: 01 December 1989