Abstract

Owing to power confinement and spectral selection, doubly resonant configurations, in which the subharmonic and harmonic waves are both resonant with the cavity modes, are in principle better suited to frequency conversion at low power and narrow linewidth [1]. However, in practice, this advantage over the singly resonant configuration is offset by a significant reduction in stability. From a theoretical viewpoint, the doubly resonant second/sub harmonic generator is a system of two driven nonlinearly coupled oscillators subject to complex nonlinear dynamics [2]. It was shown, in particular, that second/sub harmonic generation under doubly resonant condition exhibits a self-pulsing instability followed by a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations and chaos [2,3]. Such self-pulsing instabilities are observed in practical frequency conversion devices [4]. We show in our communication that diffraction can be a suitable mechanism for the stabilization of second/sub harmonic generation with respect to these self-pulsing instabilities.

© 1996 IEEE