A novel method to characterize photorefractive damage in quasiphase-matched wavelength converters

A novel two-beam method is proposed and applied for the first time, to characterize photorefractive damage (PRD) in a LiNbO3 quasiphase-matched (QPM) wavelength converter. In the proposed method, irradiation light from a Ti sapphire laser and a broadband probe beam from an erbium-doped fiber amplifier are coupled into a LiNbO3 QPM waveguide. The PRD effect caused by the irradiation is studied by monitoring the generated second-harmonic light spectrum of the probe light. It is shown that PRD in the LiNbO3 QPM waveguide can be qualitatively characterized by the proposed method, and relevant information relating to the QPM wavelength conversion can be extracted directly.