Orbital angular momentum exchange in an optical parametric oscillator

Previous studies of lasers and nonlinear resonators have revealed that the polarisation degree of freedom allows for the formation of polarisation patterns and novel localized structures, such as vectorial defects. Type II optical parametric oscillators are characterised by the fact that the down-converted beams are emitted in orthogonal polarisations. In this paper we show the results of the study of pattern and defect formation and dynamics in a Type II degenerate optical p...

The prevailing notion is that the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of an optical vortex can only be transferred to the internal degrees of freedom (i.e. electronic motion) of materials through electric quadrupole and higher-order multipole interactions. Here it is highlighted how this is an artefact of the paraxial approximation and that optical OAM can be transferred to electronic motion via dipole transitions under the correct experimental conditions where non-paraxial, longi...

We consider preparation of nonclassical oscillatory states in a degenerate parametric oscillator combined with phase modulation. In this scheme intracavity oscillatory mode is excited by train of Gaussian laser pulses through degenerate down-conversion process and phase modulation element inserted in a cavity leads to anharmonicity of oscillatory mode. We demonstrate production of nonclassical oscillatory states with two-fold symmetry in phase-space including the superpositio...

This thesis is mainly devoted to the study of the quantum properties of optical parametric oscillators (OPOs), which are nowadays the sources of the highest-quality quantum-correlated light, apart from fundamental tools in the classical-optics realm, allowing for the conversion of laser light into virtually all regions of the optical spectrum. Regarding its content, the thesis might seem a bit unusual, because two thirds of it are devoted to a self-contained (though dense) in...

We report the first experimental observation of bright EPR beams produced by a type-II optical parametric oscillator operating above threshold at frequency degeneracy. The degenerate operation is obtained by introducing a birefringent plate inside the cavity resulting in phase locking. After filtering the pump noise, which plays a critical role, continuous-variable EPR correlations between the orthogonally polarized signal and idler beams are demonstrated.

We report on the generation of flower (wheel) modes, which manifest coupled orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes, from a vortex pumped optical parametric oscillator simply by employing a pump source with a short temporal coherence time. This vortex oscillator was also developed to generate a further higher-order vortex signal output with $l_s=2-4$ by replacement of the pump source with a longer coherence time. The signal and idler outputs were tuned within wavelength ranges o...

We report the observation of optical bistability in a microcavity pumped at the "magic angle". Experimental evidence is given in the form of a hysteresis cycle of the nonlinear emission as a function of the pump intensity or the position of the excitation spot. The results can be well understood with simple theoretical considerations that underline the fundamental analogy between our system and an optical parametric oscillator.

We theoretically address squeezed light generation through the spontaneous breaking of the rotational invariance occuring in a type I degenerate optical parametric oscillator (DOPO) pumped above threshold. We show that a DOPO with spherical mirrors, in which the signal and idler fields correspond to first order Laguerre-Gauss modes, produces a perfectly squeezed vacuum with the shape of a Hermite-Gauss mode, within the linearized theory. This occurs at any pumping level above...

We study the generation of propagation invariant photons with orbital angular momentum by spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) using a Bessel-Gauss pump beam. The angular and conditional angular spectra are calculated for an uniaxial crystal optimized for type I SPDC with standard Gaussian pump beams. It is shown that, as the mean value of the magnitude of the transverse wave vector of the pump beam increases, the emission cone is deformed into two non coaxial cones ...

We describe a very stable type II optical parametric oscillator operated above threshold which provides 9.7 $\pm$ 0.5 dB (89%) of quantum noise reduction on the intensity difference of the signal and idler modes. We also report the first experimental study by homodyne detection of the generated bright two-mode state in the case of frequency degenerate operation obtained by introducing a birefringent plate inside the optical cavity.