Abstract

The advent of increasingly high average power (HAP) lasers has enhanced the need to simulate the effects of thermal gradients and other sources of phase mismatch on the conversion efficiency of 3-wave nonlinear interactions. A practical method for this analysis has been developed. This method combines the results of thermal profile modeling with optical ray tracing to provide the temperature gradient and angular divergence data required to solve the coupled wave equations with phase mismatch^[1]. The model treats arbitrary spatial/temporal intensity profiles and initial relative phases in any 3-wave mixing interaction, including sum frequency mixing (SFM), difference frequency mixing (DFM) and optical parametric oscillation/amplification (OPO/OPA). The overall simulation is an open loop, with the thermal, optical ray tracing and 3-wave mixing calculations implemented separately. Feedback from the 3-wave mixing model to the thermal model is possible. The entire process is implemented on personal computers, primarily using standard spreadsheet programing.

© 1993 Optical Society of America