Open AccessInterband photorefractive effect in β-BBO crystal due to multiphoton excitation by intense ultrashort optical pulses
Author(s) -
Shixiang Xu,
Cunqing Hua,
Heping Zeng
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.15.010576
Subject(s) - optics , photorefractive effect , materials science , excitation , ultrashort pulse , laser , wavelength , nonlinear optics , crystal (programming language) , optical parametric amplifier , optoelectronics , physics , optical amplifier , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language
This paper presents the first experimental observation of interband photo- refractive (PR) effects in beta-BBO crystal due to multiphoton excitation with intense ultrashort pulses. In order to fully characterize the PR effects, a sensitive intracavity scheme is developed to magnify the dynamics of nonlinear lenses induced by the PR effects. The reproducible PR phenomena depend strongly on the power, wavelength, and spatial intensity profile of the intense laser pulses and the electro-optic coefficient of the optical materials. Its response time is from tens of seconds to several minutes. The results may be very helpful for us to find a solution to overcome the deleterious influence of multiphoton induced photo-charges on nonlinear optical frequency conversions, e.g. optical parametric chirped pulse amplification.