High visibility pump reconstruction via ultra broadband sum frequency mixing of intense phase-conjugated twin beams

In this paper we show how after the generation of parametric down-conversion radiation (PDC) in the very high gain pulsed regime, we are able to reconstruct the pump via up-conversion of the twin beams originated from that PDC process. The peculiarity of the experiment is the ultra-broad spectral and angular bandwidth sent into the process of sum frequency mixing thanks to an achromatic imaging technique from the exit face of the PDC crystal using off-axis parabolic mirrors. The recorded spectra presented illustrate the high visibility recombination of the intense phase-conjugated signal and idler beams and pave the way for the investigation of both the spatial and temporal properties of the near field biphoton amplitude. © 2011 Optical Society of America.