Cornell University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tel Aviv University

Jeffrey Moses

Franz Xaver Kaertner

Frank Wise

Haim Suchowski

Asaf Dahan

Kyung-Han Hong

Xiaoyue Ding

Noah Flemens

Nicolas Swenson

Aleem M Siddiqui

Eyal Bahar

In one aspect, a device is disclosed that includes one or more input ports structured to receive a pumping light at a pumping wavelength and a signal light at a signal wavelength, and one or more output ports structured to output light including an amplified signal light at the signal wavelength and a second harmonic idler light. The device includes a nonlinear optical material to mix the pumping light and the signal light and to cause nonlinear conversion of the pumping light into the amplified signal light and generate an idler light at an idler wavelength. The nonlinear optical material is further structured to convert the idler light into the second harmonic idler light which eliminates the idler light at the one or more output ports and prevents back-conversion of the amplified signal light and idler light to the pumping wavelength.

Back-conversion suppressed optical parametric amplification

The technology disclosed in this patent document can be used to implement an optical device for generating broadband optical pulses, including an optical waveguide having different waveguide structures at different locations along the optical waveguide and with varying dimensions or pressure gradient that change adiabatically along the different locations to enable non-linear four wave mixing over a broad spectral range.

Generation of broadband coherent laser pulses based on adiabatic four-wave mixing in waveguides and fiber

Seed light pulses and pump light pulses are generated; the seed light pulses are preferably chirped; and both are directed into an enhancement cavity at a full repetition rate. The enhancement cavity defines a closed optical path that contains a nonlinear medium that provides phase matching at a wavelength different from both the central seed wavelength and the central pump wavelength. The generation of the pump light pulses and the seed light pulses are synchronized to pass the seed light pulses through the nonlinear medium simultaneously with the pump light pulses to parametrically amplify the seed light pulses in the nonlinear medium to produce an amplified signal pulse and idler pulse. Increased conversion with low average pump power can be achieved, as well as gain bandwidth enhancement approaching octave-spanning levels. Additionally, in the case of chirped pump pulses with sufficient bandwidth, optimal output coupling can be designed to achieve the best impedance matching at each temporal coordinate and attain the highest possible conversion and bandwidth.

Cavity-enhanced parametric amplification at full repetition rate

A pulse compressor for compressing many-cycle femtosecond-duration high-energy pulses to near-single-cycle durations uses a single quadratic nonlinear crystal. A pulsed laser beam is controlled and its passage is aligned through the quadratic nonlinear crystal such that the detrimental effects of group-velocity mismatch are avoided, while still allowing enough nonlinear phase accumulation for compression to near-single-cycle pulse durations. To do so, the perturbation to nonlinear Schr&#xf6;dinger-type soliton compression due to group-velocity mismatch is minimized which requires that the soliton order must not exceed an optimal value set by the amount of group-velocity mismatch.

Quadratic nonlinearity-based high-energy pulse compressor for generating few-cycle pulses

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Jeffrey Moses