All-solid-state mid-infrared femtosecond optical parametric oscillator based on periodically-poled lithium niobate (original) (raw)
Related papers
Femtosecond optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled lithium niobate
Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 1998
We describe a femtosecond optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled lithium niobate and pumped by a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. Signal and idler outputs almost continuously tunable from 975 nm to 4.55 m were generated by a combination of grating tuning and cavity-length tuning, and an explanation of the tuning properties is given in terms of the gain bandwidth. A threshold of 45 mW was measured and, in the absence of optimized output coupling, signal powers of 90 mW and idler powers of 70 mW were obtained, with 140 mW of green light at 540 nm generated by phase-matched frequency doubling of the signal. Dispersion compensation produced near-transform-limited signal pulses of duration 140 fs. Observations regarding temperature tuning and pump depletion are also presented.
Mid-Infrared Optical Parametric Oscillator Based on All-Solid-State-Pumped Periodically Poled LiNbO
Chinese Physics Letters, 2003
The orthorhombic biaxial crystal BaGa 4 S 7 has been employed in a 1064 nm pumped optical parametric oscillator generating <6 ns long idler pulses with energies as high as 0.5 mJ at 6.217 μm and average power of ∼50 mW at 100 Hz. Notwithstanding the relatively low nonlinearity, ∼3 times above threshold operation has been achieved at pump intensities more than 5 times below the crystal surface damage limit.
Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 2000
We present theoretical predictions and experimental results of a mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on periodically poled lithium niobate. An air-space intracavity etalon causes our OPO to oscillate on a single longitudinal mode. Continuous frequency tuning of this mode is achieved by simultaneous adjustment of the etalon mirror spacing and the OPO resonator length with piezoelectric translators. We achieved 10 cm Ϫ1 of continuous frequency tuning and more than 10 cm Ϫ1 of mode-hop tuning. The OPO is pumped with 200 J/pulse by a seeded, 1-kHz, Q-switched Nd:YAG laser and provides as much as 10 J of energy in both the idler near the 3-m wavelength and in the signal near the 1.6-m wavelength. We obtained a resolution of 0.01 cm Ϫ1 with the idler when measuring the spectrum of the Q branch of the methane C-H stretch under Doppler-limited conditions.
Efficient, high-repetition-rate, femtosecond optical parametric oscillator tunable in the red
We report efficient generation of tunable femtosecond pulses in the red by internal frequency doubling of an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on periodically poled LiNbO3 (PPLN). The OPO, based on a 1-mm-thick PPLN crystal, is synchronously pumped by a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser at 810 nm, providing signal pulses across 1.33-1.57 microm at a 76 MHz repetition rate. Using a 1-mm-thick crystal of BiB3O6 (BIBO) internal to the OPO cavity, we achieve frequency doubling of signal pulses across 665-785 nm with up to 260 mW of average power for 1.51 W of pump. The high nonlinear gain and phase-matching acceptance in PPLN and BIBO permit convenient tuning across the full range by simple detuning of OPO cavity delay. Intracavity dispersion compensation results in near-transform-limited red pulses with durations down to 140 fs for 185 fs input pump pulses.
High-Power, Fiber-Laser-Pumped Picosecond Optical Parametric Oscillator for the Near-to Mid-Infrared
2010
We report a stable, high-power, mid-infrared synchronouslypumped optical parametric oscillator (SPOPO) based on MgO:sPPLT, pumped by a 1064 nm, picosecond Yb-fiber laser operating at a repetition rate of 81.1 MHz. The singly resonant SPOPO is tunable over 1531-1642 nm (111 nm) in the near-infrared signal and 3022-3488 nm (466 nm) in the mid-infrared idler, providing a total tuning range of 577 nm. Careful optimization of output coupling results in a signal output power as high as 4.3 W at 1593 nm and a mid-infrared idler power of 2 W at 3204 nm for 13.4 W of pump power at a total extraction efficiency of 47%. The SPOPO can be operated near room temperature, down to 30 °C, and exhibits passive peak-to-peak power stability better than 8.6% at 1568 nm (signal) and 8.2% at 3310 nm (idler) over 13 hours at full power. The output signal pulses have duration of 17.5 ps, with a FWHM spectral bandwidth of 1.4 nm centered at 1568 nm.
Applied Optics, 1999
We report on a rugged all-solid-state laser source of near-IR radiation in the range of 1461-1601 nm based on a high-power Nd:YVO 4 laser that is mode locked by a semiconductor saturable Bragg reflector as the pump source of a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator with a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal. The system produces 34-ps pulses with a high repetition rate of 235 MHz and an average output power of 1 W. The relatively long pulses lead to wide cavity detuning tolerances. The comparatively narrow spectral bandwidth of Ͻ15 GHz is suitable for applications such as pollutant detection.
Few-cycle, broadband, mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator pumped by a 20-fs Ti:sapphire laser
Laser & photonics reviews, 2014
A few-cycle, broadband, singly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) for the mid-infrared based on MgO-doped periodically-poled LiNbO3 (MgO:PPLN), synchronously pumped by a 20-fs Ti:sapphire laser is reported. By using crystal interaction lengths as short as 250 µm, and careful dispersion management of input pump pulses and the OPO resonator, near-transform-limited, few-cycle idler pulses tunable across the mid-infrared have been generated, with as few as 3.7 optical cycles at 2682 nm. The OPO can be continuously tuned over 2179-3732 nm (4589-2680 cm(-1)) by cavity delay tuning, providing up to 33 mW of output power at 3723 nm. The idler spectra exhibit stable broadband profiles with bandwidths spanning over 422 nm (FWHM) recorded at 3732 nm. The effect of crystal length on spectral bandwidth and pulse duration is investigated at a fixed wavelength, confirming near-transform-limited idler pulses for all grating interaction lengths. By locking the repetition frequency of the p...
Optics Letters, 1999
We fabricated and characterized periodically poled lithium niobate monolithic optical parametric oscillators (OPO's) and generators. The compact monolithic devices were trivial to align and operate and provided widely tunable, nearly diffraction-limited, stable output pulses. Low thresholds and high conversion efficiencies were obtained when the devices were pumped with 3.5-ns 1.064-mm pulses. In addition, the monolithic OPO devices exhibited broad tuning by crystal rotation through noncollinear phase matching. The bandwidth-broadening effects exhibited in the noncollinear phase-matching geometry were measured and explained.
High-power, continuous-wave, mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator based on MgO:sPPLT
Optics Letters, 2011
We report a stable, high-power, cw, mid-IR optical parametric oscillator using MgO-doped stoichiometric periodically poled LiTaO 3 (MgO:sPPLT) pumped by a Yb fiber laser at 1064 nm. The singly resonant oscillator (SRO), based on a 30 mm long crystal, is tunable over 430 nm from 3032 to 3462 nm and can generate as much as 5:5 W of mid-IR output power, with >4 W of over 60% of the tuning range and under reduced thermal effects, enabling room temperature operation. Idler power scaling measurements at ∼3:3 μm are compared with an MgO-doped periodically poled LiNbO 3 cw SRO, confirming that MgO:sPPLT is an attractive material for multiwatt mid-IR generation. The idler output at 3299 nm exhibits a peak-to-peak power stability better than 12.8% over 5 h and frequency stability of ∼1 GHz, while operating close to room temperature, and has a linewidth of ∼0:2 nm, limited by the resolution of the wavemeter. The corresponding signal linewidth at 1570 nm is ∼21 MHz.
Pulsed nanosecond optical parametric generator based on periodically poled lithium niobate
Optics Communications, 2003
In this paper we report on a pulsed nanosecond optical parametric generator (OPG) of congruent periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN). The OPG is excited by TEM 00 single frequency pulses (duration: 10 ns, repetition rate: 10 kHz) of a Q-switched Nd:YVO 4 laser system. With 7.2 W of average power the OPG generated 1.6 W of signal and 0.76 W of idler radiation. The signal and idler waves are tunable in the range of 1.56-1.64 and 3.34-3.03 lm, respectively, by changing the temperature of the PPLN crystal. Injection seeding with 3 mW of cw 1.580 lm light of a tunable DFB diode laser narrowed the spectral width of the OPG signal wave to less than 140 MHz.