Efficient third-harmonic generation of a picosecond laser pulse with time delay

A new configuration based on the polarization-mismatching scheme with time delay for efficient frequency tripling conversion is proposed in this paper. The calculated results showed that the requirement for the efficient frequency tripling conversion of a 1-ps laser pulse is not only the optimization of peak intensity of the second-harmonic pulse, but also the optimization of the pulse duration ratio and temporal difference between the o-polarization second-harmonic pulse and the e-polarization first-harmonic pulse due to group-velocity mismatch among the interacting pulses. With the proposed scheme the group velocity mismatch can be compensated. Overall energy conversion efficiency increases from 55% to 75% under the optimized conditions at the intensity of 6 GW/cm/sup 2/. The temporal shape of the third-harmonic pulse with 1 ps pulse duration has no subpulses. The optimization of the efficient frequency tripling conversion for intensities of over 75 GW/cm/sup 2/ is also described. The results showed that the maximum tripling energy conversion efficiency is close to 80% with the optimized doubler and tripler.