2016/04/15 by A. F. Borghesani, A F Borghesani, C. Braggio +3
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Harmonics #High harmonic generation #Irradiation #Laser #Lithium niobate #Lithium triborate #Optical rectification #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics #Second-harmonic generation #Solid State Laser Technologies #Zinc selenide #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2040-8978/18/6/065503
accepted for publication in Journal of Optics, in press
arxiv created 2016/04/15 · openalex publication_date 2016/05/12 · arxiv updated 2016/06/22 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report on the experimental investigation of the efficiency of some nonlinear crystals to generate microwave (RF) radiation as a result of optical rectification (OR) when irradiated with intense pulse trains delivered by a mode-locked laser at 1064 nm. We have investigated lithium triborate (LBO), lithium niobate (LiNbO3), zinc selenide (ZnSe), and also potassium titanyl orthophosphate (KTP) for comparison with previous measurements. The results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions based on the form of the second-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor. For some crystals we investigated also the second harmonic generation (SHG) to cross check the theoretical model. We confirm the theoretical prediction that OR leads to the production of higher order RF harmonics that are overtones of the laser repetition rate.