Engineering a multimode coupling in doubly pumped parametric down-conversion: hot-spots and gain enhancement

We present a parametric down-conversion (PDC) process in a nonlinear ß-barium borate (BBO) crystal, driven by two non-collinear pump beams, obtained from a Mach-Zehnder type interferometer. We show the possibility to reproduce in a bulk crystal a phenomenology analogue to that previously observed in a PDC process inside a χ 2 2D nonlinear photonic crystal (NPC) [1] , [2]. Each pump mode generates a family of cones of parametric radiation collinear with its direction. The intersection zones define an ensemble of modes shared by the two pumps, indistinguishably populated by the photons generated by pump 1 or by pump 2. As in [1] , in the high-gain regime these two possibilities sum up coherently, leading to a local increase of the parametric gain. Indeed we observe an unusual far-field distribution of the down-converted light, in the form of three bright branches of hot-spots against a more diffuse background [3].