BANDWIDTH STUDIES OF AN INJECTION-SEEDED BETA-BARIUM BORATE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATOR

Spectral and temporal properties of a scanning injection-seeded beta-b arium berate optical parametric oscillator pumped by the third harmoni c of a 10-Hz Nd:YAG laser have been studied. The seed source was a cw diode laser with a wavelength of 830 nm tunable over a range of 50 GHz . We measured the bandwidth of the seeded optical parameter oscillator , using a two-photon resonance in barium and a Fabry-Perot etalon, to be approximately 400 MHz for pump power levels more than two times abo ve threshold. This is similar to 2 times the Fourier-transform-limited bandwidth. At lower pump powers the bandwidth was smaller.