Abstract-Investigation of a terahertz-wave parametric oscillator using LiTaO3 with the pump-wavelength tuning method

Bo Sun1, Xianpeng Bai1, Jinsong Liu2 and Jianquan Yao3

sunbo_xt@hotmail.com

http://iopscience.iop.org/1555-6611/24/3/035402/pdf/1555-6611_24_3_035402.pdf

1 Institute of Photonics and Photonic Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, People's Republic of China
2 Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China
3 College of Precision and Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, People's Republic of China
 

Bo Sun et al 2014 Laser Phys. 24 035402. doi:10.1088/1054-660X/24/3/035402
Received 2 November 2013, accepted for publication 24 December 2013. Published 3 February 2014.
© 2014 Astro Ltd

We investigate theoretically the performance of a terahertz parametric oscillator (TPO) using LiTaO3 (LT) with the pump-wavelength tuning method. The frequency tuning accuracy of the LT-TPO is potentially superior to that of a TPO using LiNbO3 (LN) under the same conditions. The variation of the radiation angle of THz waves coupled from the Si prism of the LT-TPO is up to about 20° lower than that for the LN-TPO for a pump-wavelength tuning range of 0.4–1.6 μm. Although the THz-wave parametric gain characteristics of LiTaO3 are somewhat unsatisfactory compared with those of LiNbO3, the LT-TPO with pump-wavelength tuning can still show potential for high-performance operation, with the excellent optical properties of the LiTaO3.