Many-phonon stimulated Raman scattering and related cascaded and cross-cascaded χ(3)-nonlinear optical effects in melilite-type crystal Ca2ZnSi2O7

Abstract

Different nonlinear optical interactions in a novel SRS-active non-centrosymmetric tetragonal crystal Ca2ZnSi2O7 were investigated at room and cryogenic (≈ 9 K) temperature under picosecond laser pumping. In addition to measuring octave-spanning Stokes and anti-Stokes combs we observed several cascaded and cross-cascaded χ(3) ↔ χ(3) effects involving several SRS-active phonons. All recorded Raman-induced lasing lines in the visible and near-IR range are identified and attributed to the SRS-promoting vibration transitions. A brief review of SRS- and Nd3+-doped laser-active melilite-type crystals is given as well.