Publications

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

SNLO is public domain software developed at Sandia Nat. Labs. It is intended to assist in the selection of the best nonlinear crystal for a particular application, and in predicting its performance. This paper briefly describes its functions and how to use them.

We show that the signal and idler beams generated by certain types of unseeded, nanosecond optical parametric oscillators are tilted and angularly dispersed and have anomalously large bandwidths. This effect is demonstrated in both laboratory measurements and a numerical model. We show how the optical cavity design influences the tilts and how they can be eliminated or minimized. We also determine the conditions necessary to injection seed these parametric oscillators.

We present three new methods for modeling broad-bandwidth, nanosecond optitcal parametric oscillators in the plane-wave approximation. Each accounts for the group-velocity differences that determine the operating linewidth of unseeded optical parametric oscillators, and each allows the signal and idler waves to develop from quantum noise. The first two methods are based on split-step integration methods in which nonlinear mixing and propagation are calculated separately on alternate steps. One method relies on Fourier transforming handle propagation, wiih mixing integrated over a the fields between t and u to Az step: the other transforms between z and k= in the propagation step, with mixing integrated over At. The third method is based on expansion of the three optical fields in terms of their respective longitudinal empty cavity modes, taking into account the cavity boundary condi- tions. Equations describing the time development of the mode amplitudes are solved to yield the time dependence of the three output fields. These plane-wave models exclude diffractive effects, but can be readily extended to include them.

We describe results from three new methods of numerically modeling broad-bandwidth, nanosecond OPO's in the plane-wave approximate ion. They account for differences in group velocities among the three mixing waves, and also include a qutt~ttun noise model.