DIODE-PUMPED OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS

We report on diode-laser-pumped, continuous-wave-(CW) optical parametr ic oscillators (OPO). The results describe the operation and character ization of doubly and triply resonant CW-OPOs (DRO, TRO) based on the non-linear materials KTiOPO4 (KTP) and RbTiOAsO4 (RTA) and different c avity designs. Stable single-frequency operation with a maximum signal output power of 84 mW was obtained with a pump- and idler-resonant tw o-mirror RTA-DRO, by electronically locking the OPO's pump cavity to t he diode master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) pump source: We pres ent signal wave RF intensity noise spectra of an RTA-TRO, which is pum ped with an amplitude-squeezed diode laser. The OPO noise spectra demo nstrate, for the first time, the presence of relaxation oscillations i n CW-OPOs.