Optical Parametric Amplifier - Optical Parametric Generation (OPG)

Optical Parametric Generation (OPG)

This light emission is based on the nonlinear optical principle. The photon of an incident laser pulse (pump) is, by a nonlinear optical crystal, divided into two photons, the sum energy of which is equivalent to the energy of the photon of the pump. The wavelengths of the two generated laser pulses, called the signal and the idler, are determined by the phase matching condition, which is changed e. g. by temperature or, in bulk optics, by the angle between the incident pump laser ray and the optical axes of the crystal. The wavelengths of the signal and the idler photons can, therefore, be tuned by changing the phase matching condition. This process is called optical parametric generation, or OPG.