Optical Cherenkov radiation by cascaded nonlinear interaction: an efficient source of few-cycle energetic near- to mid-IR pulses

Abstract

When ultrafast noncritical cascaded second-harmonic generation of energetic femtosecond pulses occur in a bulk lithium niobate crystal optical Cherenkov waves are formed in the near- to mid-IR. Numerical simulations show that the few-cycle solitons radiate Cherenkov (dispersive) waves in the $λ=2.2-4.5\mic$ range when pumping at $λ_1=1.2-1.8\mic$. The exact phase-matching point depends on the soliton wavelength, and we show that a simple longpass filter can separate the Cherenkov waves from the solitons. The Cherenkov waves are born few-cycle with an excellent Gaussian pulse shape, and the conversion efficiency is up to 25%. Thus, optical Cherenkov waves formed with cascaded nonlinearities could become an efficient source of energetic near- to mid-IR few-cycle pulses.

Extended version of Nonlinear Optics 2011 contribution http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=NLO-2011-NTuA7. Submitted for Optics Express special issue for NLO conference

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• Generating mid-IR octave-spanning supercontinua and few-cycle pulses with solitons in phase-mismatched quadratic nonlinear crystals
• Multiple-octave spanning mid-IR supercontinuum generation in bulk quadratic nonlinear crystals
• Experimental observation of long-wavelength dispersive wave generation induced by self-defocusing nonlinearity in BBO crystal
• Energetic mid-IR femtosecond pulse generation by self-defocusing soliton-induced dispersive waves in a bulk quadratic nonlinear crystal
• Efficient supercontinuum generation in quadratic nonlinear waveguides without quasi-phase matching
• Generation of 1.5-octave intense infrared pulses by nonlinear interactions in DAST crystal
• Mid-IR femtosecond frequency conversion by soliton-probe collision in phase-mismatched quadratic nonlinear crystals
• Bright-soliton frequency combs and dressed states in chi(2) microresonators
• Soliton compression to few-cycle pulses with a high quality factor by engineering cascaded quadratic nonlinearities