Quasi phase matching in femtosecond pulse volume structured x-cut lithium niobate

All optical inscription of quasi phase matching structures in an x-cut LiNbO3 crystal is demonstrated. Quasi phase matching is obtained by periodically lowering the nonlinear refractive index of the crystal using focussed ultrashort pulses. The structures were used to frequency double 1.55 µm light. The converted signal could be enhanced by a factor of 70 with respect to the unmodified material. From these measurement it could be deduced that the nonlinearity has been periodically damped up to 20%.