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I S Ruddock
Department of Physics and Applied Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G4 ONC, UK
Received 22 February 1992, in final form 11 October 1993
Abstract. The generation of the second harmonic of the Rerumea. La gcnermbn del sepundo ~ r m o n i c nd r In Iuz a
632.8 MI light from ao He-Ne laser is described as the basis 632 8 nm producio por un laser de H z - h es descnto mmo
of an undergraduate experiment. The dependence of the b r u para un crpenmenio a nivel de hCZnCl31urd La
signal on phase-matching angle and intensity of the dependcnas de I3 s l n d cambrando el a n y l o del cnsLaI y la
fundamental beam is discussed. intesidad del ra,o fundamental ci dxuudo
frequencies 2w, 3w, . .. giving rise to harmonics of the gating a distance 1 through the crystal is given by
original frequency w. Because x2,x 3 , .. . are small
compared with x I , nonlinear optical effects were
not observed until after the invention of the laser in
1960. expiAkl- I
- ix2(2w1)8:
The simplest way to obtain an expression linking
the second harmonic intensity with that of the fun- 4cn2 [ iAk ] (7)
damental and the length of the crystal etc., is to Erst where Ak = k2 - Zk,, the mismatch parameter.
assume that a wave El of amplitude O,, angular The average second harmonic intensity generated
frequency w, and wave number k,, at the exit of the crystal, I,, is thus
E, = P l [ e x p i ( k , r - q f ) + e x p - i ( k , r - w l t ) ] ,
propagates in the z direction through the nonlinear
medium and generates a second harmonic wave E2 where use has been made of the general expression
of amplitude 82,angular frequency zWl and wave
number k2,
Ea = P2[exp i ( k p - zWl f) + exp -i(kzz - zWlr)],
I= L,
Only media which lack inversion symmetry, for
(2) example anisotropic crystals, possess non-zero x2.
Since the amplitude of the second harmonic grows That this is so can be seen by inspection of equation
with distance z, &t2/az must be deduced and then (1) since in a centrosymmetric crystal, reversal of the
integrated over the thickness, 1, of the crystal. electric field must leave the magnitude of the polari-
In a nonmagnetic material of permitivity 6 , the zation unchanged. A consequence of a crystal being
wave equation is anisotropic is that it exhibits birefringence, but this
2 a2E in turn can be exploited to produce phasematching
V E = PO- resulting in the efficient generation of the nonlinear
az signal.
az
= P O - [DE+ PI. (3) 2.2 Phasematching
as
For the second harmonic wave equation, all polari- If Ak # 0, as is normally the case due to dispersion,
zation wmponents oscillating at zWl must be then the average second harmonic intensity, I, is pro-
included in P and so (3) becomes: portional to sin2(Akl/2) and it oscillates with dis-
-1
tance through the crystal. The second harmonic
ir (4) waves generated at different points along the beams
V2E2 = I . L ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ [ E ~ + x I E ~path + xdo~ not
~ I reinforce
. each other as they are not
The quantities within the brackets represent travelling at the same speed as the fundamental wave.
respectively, the linear pola,+zation contrim Chaotic interference occurs and the second harmonic
bution due to the second harmonic Wave itself wave does not succeed in growing in intensity. If
and the nonlinear driving term produced by the however, Ak=o,
fundamental.
Recognizing that the refractive index at the (9)
second harmonic, n2 is related to the susceptibility
+
evaluated at zW,,by n: = 1 x,,(4) may be written and I, is proportional to l 2 giving rapid growth of the
as second harmonic intensity with distance. Phase-
matching is said to occur under these conditions as
V2E2= p o e o -a2
[ n 2 E + x z E2I ] . the refractive indices and phase velocities at the fun-
a? damental and second harmonic Frequencies are equal
At the intensity levels encountered in these experi- and thus X2 = XI 12.
ments, the conversion efficiency is low and thus the The crystal used in this experiment, Ammonium
second harmonic amplitude grows slowly with Dihydrogen Phosphate (ADP), is negatively uniaxial
distance through the capital. In this case it may be with no > n. and its dispersion curves are shown
assumed that #8,/az2 < k2.a82/az, then substi- schematically in figure 1. It is clear that there exists
tution of (2) as the solution of the second harmonic in this crystal a direction 9 relative to the optic axis
wave equation ( 5 ) yields such that the ordinary index at XI is equal to the
extraordinary at A,, given by
Nonlinear optical second harmonic generation 55
+i
+ I t .
t I
~
Figure 5. Dependence of the second harmonic signal on Figure 6. Dependence of the second harmonic signal on
the fundamental power: In-In plot. The stmight line is of the position of the crystal relative to the focus of the lens
slope 2. at z = 0 for crystals of thickness (a) 2.16- and (b)
0.36mm. The solid curve is W(Z)-~ evaluated using only
quantities are related by PZ = I 2 . d and hence the the measured parameters of the experiment.
second harmonic signal is inversely proportional to
wz for constant laser power. Since wz is in turn due to the divergence and dif-
Figure 7 shows schematically the Gaussian fraction of the beam expanding from the beam
beam expanding from the output of the laser and waist, w,,located either on one of the laser mirrors
being focused by a lens of focal length f to a spot or at some point between them, it may be calcu-
of radius w0. The beam spot size, w(z), a distance z lated by using (1 I ) again. The manufacturer's specifi-
symmetrically on either side of the focus given by cation for an He-Ne laser normally quotes wI or at
least the far field beam divergence and so the spot
[2-41 size in the vicinity of the focus can be traced back
[ (
-3'1
w ( z ) = WO I +
to the laser itself.
The laser used in the experiment Melles-Griot 05
LHP 121, bas a l/e2 beam radius ( w l ) of 0.2951~1.
The spot sue 'w' denotes the I/e radius of Application of (1 1) yields a spot radius of 0.505 mm
the electric field distribution and the l/ez radius (wz) at the input of the lens when it is 60cm from
of the light intensity in the cross-section of a the laser. The Ealing x 10 objective has an equivalent
fundamental mode Gaussian beam. The size of focal length of 16" which results in a focus of
the light spot at the focus, WO, is determined by radius (wo)of 6.39 pm. Thus the variation in the spot
the focal length of the lens and the spot radius, w2, size on either side of the focus, ~ ( z )is, given by ( I 1)
of the light incident on it. By application of to be
the ABCD ray tracing matrices for the lens and
the displacement between it and the focal point,
wo may be shown to be given by [7]
w(z) = 6.39pm 1 [+ 24.3 (14)
To fit theoretical curves to the experimental points,
w(z)-' is evaluated from (14) over the same range of
lens adjustment and is shown plotted as the solid
cume in figure 6.
The agreement of the computed points is excep-
For the dimensions encountered in most practical tionally good for the thin sample hut poor for the
situations, (12) can be simplified to thick one. The model effectively assumed that the
second harmonic was only generated in an infini-
tesimally thin slice of crystal. In practice, the conver-
Saunders)
[4] Chatak A K and Thyagarajan K 1989 Optical
Electronics (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press)
5. Conclusions [5l Dunn M H and Akerboom F 1985 Opricalsecond
hnrmonic generation. Physics Experiments and
An undergraduate experiment featuring the phenom- Projecb for Studenfs ed C Isenberg and S Chomet
enon of second harmonic generation of a laser has (Newman Hemisphere)
been described. The experiment illustrates the hasic [a Kirby K W and DeShazer L G 1987 J . Opi.Soc.
principles of the process, phasematching and power Am. B 4 1072
dependence. In addition, it includes an exercise [I Verdeyen J T 1981 h e r Electronics (Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: PrentiwHall). This undergraduate
requiring the application of Gaussian beam optics textbook gives a good introduction to Gaussian
and illustrating well some calculations which a beam optics and ray tracing matrices, and deals
graduate scientist working in this field would be with the focusing of a laser beam as a worked
expected to perform from time to time. example