Cooperative oscillation of non-degenerate transverse modes in an optical system: multimode operation in parametric oscillators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates experimentally that nonlinear wave mixing can induce cooperative oscillation of non-resonant transverse modes in an optical parametric oscillator, revealing a new multimode operation mechanism.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of cooperative mode oscillation driven by parametric interaction in multimode optical systems.

Findings

Nonlinear wave mixing can generate resonant oscillations of non-resonant modes.

Experimental validation of cooperative oscillation in a parametric oscillator.

Potential applicability to other spatially extended nonlinear systems.

Abstract

We show experimentally that parametric interaction can induce a cooperative oscillation of non simultaneously resonant transverse modes in an optical parametric oscillator. More generally, this effect is expected to occur in any spatially extended system subjected to boundary conditions where nonlinear wave mixing of two nonresonant spatial modes can generate a resonant oscillation.