TYPE-II CONTINUOUS-WAVE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS - OSCILLATION AND FREQUENCY-TUNING CHARACTERISTICS

We detail the oscillation properties of cw type-II optical parametric oscillators (signal and idler modes with orthogonal polarizations). Wh en the signal and idler frequencies are very close, they are shown to have characteristics that are quite different from the well-known type -I optical parametric oscillators. We determine in particular the cavi ty-length values for which the oscillation occurs and how the frequenc ies of the output fields vary when one changes this length, the crysta l angle, or the temperature. Finally, we determine the influence of th e mirror phase shifts on the oscillation characteristics of a linear-c avity OPO.