Beam tilt and angular dispersion in broad-bandwidth, nanosecond optical parametric oscillators

We show that the signal and idler beams generated by certain types of unsee ded, nanosecond optical paramet ric oscillators are tilted and angularly di spersed and have anomalously large bandwidths. This effect is demonstrated in both laboratory measurements and a numerical model. We show how the opti cal cavity design influences the tilts and how these tilts can be eliminate d or minimized. We also determine the conditions necessary for injection se eding of these parametric oscillators. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(99)02409-1].