This
project covers the following topics:
 |
 investigation
of new solid-state nonlinear optical materials with second and
third order nonlinear susceptibility. The focus here is on nonlinear
crystals suitable for up- and down-conversion of the available
femtosecond laser sources (oscillators and amplifiers) which
operate in the visible and the near-IR, to the UV and the VUV
region on one hand (up-conversion), and to the mid-IR region
on the other hand (down-conversion). Phase-matched (through
birefringence, periodic structures etc.) and non-phase-matched
processes are under study with high intensity femtosecond pulses.
The characterization of such novel materials for the nonlinear
optics includes dispersion, second and higher order nonlinearities
(Kerr coefficient and two-photon absorption), damage threshold
etc., which are important for practical implementation in the
ultrafast technology but proceeds also to fundamental issues
like the physical origin of the macroscopic nonlinearities for
which purpose similar compounds with exchanged constituents
are studied. |
|
 investigation
of novel interaction schemes for frequency mixing, the use of
novel pump and seed sources in parametrical amplification of
femtosecond pulses, with the final aim to generate either new
wavelengths or improve the conversion efficiency, stability,
spectral and spatial quality, and simplify (e.g. less stages)
schemes for the generation of already demonstrated wavelengths.
|
|
|
F. Noack