Impact of spatial modulation on the third harmonic wave propagation and far-field focal spot in frequency conversion system

Third harmonic generation (THG) of high power laser is discussed in KDP crystals utilized in frequency conversion systems of large laser facilities. The far-field focal spot of the third harmonic wave is presented based on numerical simulation of the nonlinear coupled-wave equations, in which the walk-off and paraxial diffraction are taken into account and the electric field of the fundamental wave (1053 nm, 1ω) pulse is phase and amplitude modulated in spatial domain. Impact of the modulation depth and frequency on the focal spot energy, the side lobes location and conversion efficiency are analyzed in detail. The results show that the side lobes location is equivalently determined by the modulation frequency of both phase modulation and amplitude modulation, while the energy-concentration is decreased mostly because of the 1ω modulation depth. Relatively, the phase modulation plays a more important role than the amplitude modulation in decreasing main lobe energy for different reasons. The phase modulation makes the energy flowing from the main lobe to side lobes, while amplitude modulation not only makes the energy flowing but also decreases tripling efficiency significantly.