Cascaded wavelength conversion as favorable application of nonlinear optical polymers

Nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers have been considered promising materials for wavelength conversion at a low pump power. However, they have not been readily adopted to practical applications due to their high absorption coefficients, especially at a shorter interacting wavelength. Our theoretical analysis proves that the influence of absorption coefficients can be mitigated significantly in cascaded wavelength conversion (CWC) processes. According to our example study, maximum conversion efficiencies for CWC can compare even with those for second-harmonic generation in many NLO polymers. Thus CWC can become a pertinent application of NLO polymers. However, to obtain such efficient CWC, several realistic problems should be resolved in practical devices. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.