Abstract
The accomplishment of electric poling of ferroelectric materials has led to the new age of quantum electronics. A quasi-phase-matching (QPM) structure can be accurately and precisely written onto ferroelectric materials by micron-scale lithographic technique, which is the most common technique in microelectronics industries. In recent development, periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) has become the essential element for optical parametric generation (OPG). The high conversion efficiency and tunability contributes to tunable infrared radiation for spectroscopy and remote sensing, and visible laser for RGB display and fluorescence biosensing as well.This thesis presents theoretical calculation of optical parametric generation and method of fabricating periodically poled lithium niobate. In experiment session, a set of eye-safe optical parametric amplification (OPA) is performed with a 34mm-long, 0.5mm-thick, 30 -grating-period PPLN. This sample was pumped with 3, 1.2ns pulsewidth, and 8.3kHz-repetition-rate 1064nm Q-switched microchip laser. A 5mW, 1550nm laser diode was the source to be amplified within the optical parametric amplifier. OPG is also characterized while using a high energy pump laser. With 10ns pulse width at 20Hz, threshold of the OPG is near 200 .In addition, fifth order quasi-phasematched second harmonic generation (SHG) with conversion efficiency larger than 10% has been discovered and measured when PPLN is translating to the grating period of 31 at 69.7oC as the first order QPM SHG requires less than 10 grating period. Third order QPM SHG has been tested as well while 5mm PPLN with 20 grating period is heated to ~117oC. Conversion efficiency exceeds 40%.