Angular phase-matching bandwidths in biaxial nonlinear crystals for frequency converters

It is shown that the angular phase-matching bandwidths in biaxial nonlinear crystals in the general case must be calculated in the coordinate system in which the angular deviations of the crystal and the laser beam divergence are determined consistently. The angular phase-matching bandwidths in this coordinate system may considerably differ from the conventionally determined values. The optimum orientation of the coordinate system for determining the angular phase-matching bandwidths is found. It is established that, in the general case in biaxial crystals, as in uniaxial ones, phase matching is always angle-critical along one coordinate and noncritical along the other and that it is possible to realise angle-noncritical phase matching of the fourth order.