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Since the first experimental demonstration of optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) in 1965, their operation at degeneracy has been significantly overlooked due to several technical issues. However, degenerate OPOs are known to possess intriguing coherence properties and hold promising potentials for a wide range of applications. Over the past few years, we have been exploring realization of degenerate OPOs in the femtosecond regime, and utilizing them to address pressing needs related to molecular spectroscopy and quantum information processing. These OPOs also benefit from simplicity of setup, low-threshold operation, and high conversion efficiency.
In the first part of this talk, we overview the concept of sub-harmonic generation and present the intriguing coherence properties of femtosecond degenerate OPOs [1]. We show how they can be used to coherently translate the well-established near-IR frequency combs to the mid-IR spectral region between 2 and 6 μm [2], and discuss the results of ultrasensitive intracavity molecular spectroscopy [3].
In the second part, we introduce a novel quantum computational concept based on the quantum phase transition in a network of degenerate OPOs [4]. We present the recent results of first successful experiment of such a machine realized with femtosecond degenerate OPOs [5]. This approach offers promise for scalable non-classical computation.
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