Infrared second-harmonic generation in nonbirefringent cadmium telluride

Abstract

We have experimentally demonstrated infrared second-harmonic generation in the nonbirefringent zincblende crystal cadmium telluride using properly oriented plates in which the optical path length is equal to an odd number of coherence lengths. The present process has the promise of scalability to high power, since suitable zinc-blende cubic crystals can be grown in large boules of excellent optical quality.

Inorganic Crystals for Nonlinear Optical Frequency Conversion

“…The difficulty in implementing qua�i-phasematched interactions is in creating the reversal of the nonlinear susceptibility every coherence length, typically several microns for visible interactions and several tens of microns for infrared interactions. Early work in QPM involved discrete plates of nonlinear crystals, each rotated 1800 with respect to the previous plate, of interest primarily for infrared interactions (169,170). More recently, ferroelectrics with periodic domain structures have been widely exploited for QPM, as sign changes in the nonlinear susceptibility are associated with the domain reversals (171)(172)(173).…”

Nonlinear optical effects in rotationally-twinned crystals: An evaluation of CdTe, ZnTe and ZnSe

“…On discutera les avantages potentiels en Several alternative methods of achieving phasematching other than birefringence have been proposed [4][5][6][7], following the original suggestions of Bloembergen [8,9]. Experimental interest in these techniques [10] has been revived in the last several years [11][12][13][14] Recently, we have demonstrated [15,16] that enhanced nonlinear optical ef'ects may be generated in rotationally-twinned crystals. In this paper, the physical basis of these effects will be described and an evaluation of several useful 43m materials will be given.…”

“…Included in the list are birefringent phase-matchable crystals as well as nonbirefringent 43m materials which may be employed in periodic phase matching schemes. The data were compiled from a number of sources, including the surveys by Kurtz [25,26], Byer [27], and Akhmanov et al [28], the book by Zernike and Midwinter [2], nonlinear coefficients for GaAs and CdTe as adopted by Thompson et al [13] and Piltch et al [14], respectively, data on InAs and GaSb from Wynne and Bloembergen [29], and unpublished data we have obtained on damage thresholds for proustite (Ag3AsS3) and ZnSe.…”

“…Although CdGeAs2 has a very large figure of merit, d2eff/n3, and is phase-matchable, the number of optically useful crystals which have been grown over the past three years is very small in spite of substantial efforts by several leading laboratories. The absorption second-harmonic radiation at an internal fundamental power density of 100 MW/CM2 [14].…”

“…[2] [11,13,14], it is useful to consider methods whereby rotationally-twinned crystals could be used to obtain multiple coherent domains in a single crystal. Figure 4 illustrates three possibilities which are currently being investigated in our laboratory.…”