Abstract

For the first time the ideas on parametric light amplification and oscillation in crystals possessing quadratic susceptibility have been formulated in theoretical papers^1,2,3 published 40 years ago. Soon this unique phenomenon has been demonstrated experimentally by several groups.^4,5,6,7 The first demonstration of optical parametric generator (OPG) was accomplished in.⁸ Actually, the device has been operating as traveling-wave optical parametric amplifier (OPA) of superfluorescence and exhibiting both efficiency and reliability too low for practical applications. The rapid progress of picosecond and femtosecond lasers and advent of effective nonlinear crystals as BBO and LBO have revived OPA and OPG in nineties⁹ boosting them to the top of the mostly used nonlinear optical devices.

© 2002 Optical Society of America