Studies of two-wave mixing of very broad-spectrum laser light in BaTiO3

We present theoretical and experimental studies of the process of two-wave mixing of broadband radiation in BaTiO3,. We show that the energy exchange in such a process can be calculated on the basis of a system of coupled-wave equations in which phase-mismatch diffraction processes are taken into account. Good agreement of the model predictions and measurements performed with a variable-bandwidth Ti:sapphire laser is reported. Reasonable amplification of light with a FWHM spectrum of as much as 10 nm is reported in a standard copropagation scheme; above this Value a considerable gain decrease and significant spatial profile changes occur. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(99)01206-0] OCIS codes: 190.7070, 190.5330.