HIGH-POWER, BROADLY TUNABLE ALL-SOLID-STATE SYNCHRONOUSLY PUMPED LITHIUM TRIBORATE OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATOR

The performance of a high-power all-solid-state synchronously pumped o ptical parametric oscillator based on a Brewster-angled lithium tribor ate crystal is reported. The pump scheme includes a diode-pumped ampli fier stage to boost the mean output power from an additive-pulse mode- locked Nd:YLF laser by a factor of 2. Improvements in the efficiency f or an external resonant frequency doubler have produced a useful outpu t power of 660 mW at 523.5 nm for pumping the optical parametric oscil lator. Temperature-tuned noncritical phase matching of the lithium tri borate crystal permitted generation of continuously tunable radiation over the range 0.65-2.7 mu m with mean output powers for the signal (i dler) as high as 210 mW (110 mW) in the standard X-fold resonator. The high intracavity power of the resonated signal wave introduced nonlin ear chirping of the emitted pulses. With prisms to provide intracavity dispersion compensation, nearly transform-limited pulses of 1.63-ps d uration were generated with mean output power of as much as 140 mW, i. e., peak powers of similar to 700 W. (C) 1995 Optical Society of Ameri ca