A Proposal of Electro-optically Tunable Nonlinear Phase

Shift in Bulk KTN crystal by Cascaded χ2: χ2 Optical Process

Ardhendu Saha1, Sharbari Deb 2, Asim Asrar3
1,2,3
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Agartala,
Barjala, Jirania, Tripura (West), Pin-799046, Tripura, India.
arsagtwave@gmail.com, sharbari.deb@gmail.com , imasimasrar@gmail.com

Abstract: We report an analytical method to modulate the nonlinear phase shift between the
incident and reconverted fundamental waves which are related to the effective nonlinear refractive
index by electro-optic tuning in a bulk KTN crystal having a large electro-optic coefficient.
OCIS codes: (190.0190) Nonlinear optics, (230.0230) Optical devices, (190.2620) Harmonics generation and mixing,
(260.1180) Crystal Optics, (050.5080) Phase shift, (160.2100) Electro-optical materials, (190.3270) Kerr effect.

1. Introduction
Electro-optic effect is widely known for the intrinsic nature of fast response time, which is advantageous for a
variety of applications over the last decade. However, many research works have been carried out on a cascaded
second-order nonlinear process which has a great number of applications such as mode-locking, optical switching,
pulse compression, self-focusing and defocusing, spatial solitons, electro-optic switching and many more. Recently,
there has been a resurgence of interest in the effective third-order nonlinearity (χ3) obtained due to Kerr electro-
optic effect which is produced by cascaded χ2: χ2 process. During the propagation of optical waves through a
nonlinear crystal, the cascading of χ2(ω;2ω,-ω) and χ2(2ω;ω,ω) processes leads to a nonlinear phase shift (∆φNL)
under phase mismatch condition for second-harmonic generation (SHG). An intensity dependent effective nonlinear
refractive index (n2eff) which is proportional to the χ3 nonlinearity is responsible for this particular phenomenon
[1]. In this report, an investigation on nonlinear phase shift in tetragonal Potassium Tantalate Niobate (KTN) crystal
is conducted for a cascaded second-order process by electro-optical tuning method. Due to the large electro-optic
(EO) coefficient of bulk KTN [2], by applying a minimum voltage desired phase mismatch factor has been
introduced which creates better nonlinear phase shift within the incident and regenerated Fundamental Waves
compared to some other crystals such as BBO and KTP etc.[3,4].
2. Proposed Scheme and Results
In our proposed scheme the dimension of tetragonal KTN crystal is assumed to be 25 ×25×15mm3 shown in Fig.1.
The FW of 1064nm is propagating along the type I phase matching direction to the principal axis. The intensity is
2.6×105W/cm2 and the beam diameter is 0.7mm. Fig.2 shows that the refractive indices of Fundamental Wave (FW)
along the principal axes are considered to be no1=2.2198, ne1=2.1914 and for second-harmonic wave (SHW) as
no2=2.3324, ne2=2.2954 [5]. The electro-optic coefficient of the crystal is considered as 600pm/V [2].

Fig.1: Schematic diagram of Proposed Scheme

Due to the applied voltage in the x-y plane of KTN crystal a phase mismatch factor (ΔkL) is introduced
along the propagation length of the crystal (L) which can be calculated as [3]:

(1)
Here, λ is the propagating wavelength; k1 and k2 are the wave vectors of FW and SHW respectively. However, n1
and n2 are the modified refractive indices of FW and SHW respectively. So, it can be easily understood from eqn.(1)
that ΔkL depends upon the change of refractive indices of the crystal which can be controlled by applied voltage as
shown in Fig.3. The maximum calculated ΔkL is ± 677.87 radian for an applied voltage of 10.5 KV.

FP033
 Fig.2: Refractive index vs. optical wavelength Fig.3: Tuning of ΔkL w.r.t. applied voltage
Depending upon the sign of phase mismatch, ∆φNL can be either positive or negative [4]. Moreover, ∆φNL is also
related to n2eff in case of cascaded second-order nonlinearity as:

(2)
Here, I denotes the intensity of light and n2eff [6] can be defined as:

(3)
It can be clearly seen from eqn.(3) that, n2eff is proportional to [d2eff/n12n22] which is comparable with χ2 material as:
(4)

Fig.4: Tuning of ∆φNL w.r.t. applied voltage Fig.5: Tuning of n2eff w.r.t. applied voltage
Fig. 3 and 4 indicate the tuning of ∆φ and n2 by controlling the applied voltage to the crystal respectively. The
NL eff

maximum ∆φNL calculated to be 22.36 radian and the maximum calculated n2eff is 6.11×10-13cm2/W.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, we have demonstrated a tunable electro-optical method by creating cascaded second-order
nonlinearity to calculate nonlinear phase shift in bulk KTN crystal. This generated phase shift plays a vital role to
develop large second-order nonlinear effect for cascaded Kerr lens mode-locking using the aforementioned
nonlinear crystal. The significance of our work is that despite controlling the intensity of incident wave KTN can be
broadly used to develop effective nonlinear refractive index by tuning the applied voltage

5. References
[1] Kim, H. K., Ju, J. J., & Cha, M. “Nonlinear Phase Shift due to Cascaded Second-order Optical Processes in KNbO~ 3”. Journal-korean
physical society, 32, S468-S471. (1998).
[2] Sawaki, M., & Motai, H. “Successful preparation of KTN crystals with the highest reported electro-optic effect and the potential for providing
a great improvement in optical device performance”. NTT Technical Review, 1(9), 56-58. (2003).
[3]Debnath, R., Beda, S. K., & Saha, “A. Proposal for electro-optically tunable Kerr-lens in BBO crystal by cascaded second-order process.
Optik-International Journal for Light and Electron Optics”, 138, 256-262. (2017).
[4] Debnath, R., Hada, D. S., Beda, S. K., & Saha, A. “Electro-optically tunable self-focusing and self-defocusing in KTP crystals by a cascaded
second-order process”. Chinese Optics Letters, 14(12), 121902. (2016).
[5]Loheide, S., Riehemann, S., Mersch, F., Pankrath, R., & Krätzig, E. “Refractive Indices, Permittivities, and Linear Electrooptic Coefficients of
Tetragonal Potassium Tantalate‐Niobate Crystals”. physica status solidi (a), 137(1), 257-265. (1993).
[6] Shen, T. Z., Hong, S. H., & Song, J. K. “Electro-optical switching of graphene oxide liquid crystals with an extremely large Kerr coefficient.
Nature materials”, 13(4), 394.(2014).

FP033