Laser-pumped cascaded optical parametric oscillators for watt level mid-IR generation

David G. Lancaster

doi:10.1117/12.579941

23 December 2004 Laser-pumped cascaded optical parametric oscillators for watt level mid-IR generation

David G. Lancaster

Proceedings Volume 5620, Solid State Laser Technologies and Femtosecond Phenomena; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.579941
Event: European Symposium on Optics and Photonics for Defence and Security, 2004, London, United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper presents a new frequency conversion architecture based on a cascaded KTiPO₄ (KTP) and ZnGeP₂ (ZGP) optical parametric oscillator (OPO)/optical parametric amplifier (OPA) system. Up to 0.84 W of combined signal and idler output is achieved, which is tunable across the 3.8-4.8 μm spectral region. Incident Nd:YAG pump power is 6.3 W. To achieve efficient low pulse energy conversion, the KTP OPO used a line focus and multiple crystal walk-off compensation. The novel ZGP OPO/OPA configuration efficiently utilizes both of the orthogonally polarized KTP OPO signal and idler beams. The OPA is pumped by combining the 3.8-4.8 μm output from the ZGP OPO with the unused 2.13 μm beam, which is then focused into two ZGP crystals configured as a walk off compensated OPA. Measured beam quality of the OPA signal and idler output has an M²<2, and the residual 2.13μm OPA pump light is also collinear with the mid-IR light.

Citation Download Citation

David G. Lancaster "Laser-pumped cascaded optical parametric oscillators for watt level mid-IR generation", Proc. SPIE 5620, Solid State Laser Technologies and Femtosecond Phenomena, (23 December 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.579941

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