Green-to-red tunable SHG of a quantum-dot laser in a PPKTP waveguide

Quasi-phase-matching is an important and widely-used technique in nonlinear optics enabling efficient frequency up-conversion. However, since its introduction almost half a century ago, this technique is well developed for near infrared (IR) but is intrinsically limited in spectral tunability in the visible range by the strict conditions set by the spatial modulation which compensates the momentum mismatch imposed by the dispersion. Here, we provide a fundamental generalization of quasi-phase-matching based on the utilization of a significant difference in the effective refractive indices of the high-and low-order modes in multimode waveguides. This concept enables to match the period of poling in a very broad wavelength range and opens up a new avenue for an order-of-magnitude increase in wavelength range for frequency conversion from a single crystal. Using this approach, we demonstrate an all-room-temperature continuous-wave (CW) second harmonic generation (SHG) with over 60 nm tunability from green to red in a periodically-poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) waveguide pumped by a single broadly-tunable quantum-dot laser diode. (C) 2012 by Astro, Ltd.