Optical-frequency balanced mixer

Optical signal processing devices based on quasi-phase-matched three-wave m ixing and cascaded three-wave mixing in guided-wave geometries have been de monstrated to operate efficiently at practical pump-power levels. We descri be operation of such devices in a balanced mode that allows mixing without wavelength offset and separation of mixed output from pump and signal input without wavelength-selective filters. We present a design for an optical-f requency balanced mixer using quasi-phase-matched, cascaded second-order no nlinear processes. Using this design, we fabricated a balanced mixer in per iodically poled lithium niobate waveguides that has the expected linear and nonlinear optical performance. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.