Abstract

We demonstrate intra-cavity tunable and multiple wavelength conversion for optical communications in the third spectral window based on single-pass difference frequency generation (DFG) with intracavity PPSLT crystals. The experimental set up of the wavelength converting system is shown in Fig. 1. It is based on single-pass difference frequency generation with a PPSLT crystal placed inside the V-folded cavity of a tunable self-injection-locked diode-pumped Cr³⁺:LiCAF, which oscillates around 792±8 nm with a spectral width lower than 1 nm. Thus, the spectral allocation of the converted spectrum can be tuned through the coupled cavity based on a diffraction grating (Littrow mounting) thanks to the spectral characteristics of the Cr³⁺:LiCAF [1]. Despite the very limited experimental conditions available to us with the laser operating only 1.5 times above threshold with a modest intra-cavity power, we show that improving the laser design to approach the high conversion efficiency [2], even in excess of 100% if the laser is carefully designed so that conditions to achieve parametric net gain are fulfilled [3].

© 2013 IEEE