Mean-field equation for phase-modulated optical parametric oscillator

Abstract

The widely established techniques for the generation of ultrashort optical pulses rely on passive mode-locking of lasers, with the output pulse duration and emission spectrum determined by the intrinsic lifetime of laser transition in the gain medium. Due to the instantaneous nature of nonlinear gain, optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) are capable of generating optical radiation in all time scales from continuous-wave (cw) to ultrashort femtosecond regime, if driven by laser pump sources in the corresponding time domain. In the ultrashort time scale, operation of OPOs conventionally relies on mode-locked pump lasers, with the concomitant disadvantages of large footprint and high cost. At the same time, the lack of gain storage mandates the use of synchronous pumping, resulting in increased complexity. In this paper, we present the concept of phase-modulated OPO driven by cw pump laser. The approach overcomes the traditional drawbacks of ultrafast OPOs, enabling femtosecond pulse generation without the need for synchronous pumping, resulting in a simplified, compact and cost-effective architecture using cw input pump lasers. We derive a mean-field equation for a degenerate $χ^{(2)}$ OPO driven by a cw laser with intracavity electro-optic modulator (EOM), and also including dispersion compensation. The new equation predicts the formation of stable femtosecond pulses ($<$200~fs), in both normal and anomalous dispersion regimes, with a controllable repetition rate determined by the frequency of the EOM. The remarkable functionality of the proposed scheme paves the way for the development of a new class of widely tunable coherent femtosecond light sources in both bulk and integrated format based on $χ^{(2)}$ OPOs using cw pump lasers.