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

Abstract

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 …