Ultrabroadband tunable continuous-wave difference-frequency generation in periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides

Opt Lett. 2007 Jul 1;32(13):1953-5. doi: 10.1364/ol.32.001953.

Abstract

We report, for what is the first time to our knowledge, widely tunable mid-IR light generation over a range of greater than 1000 nm in the 4 microm region by employing a single quasi-phase-matched periodically poled niobate waveguide at room temperature. The waveguide we used was fabricated by annealed proton exchange based on periodically poled lithium niobate. A peak conversion efficiency of 10%/W and a linewidth as small as 37 MHz were achieved. The developed mid-IR light generator may find wide applications in trace gas detection of multiple atmospheric species and high-resolution spectroscopy.