We report a high-power, widely tunable, cw singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on MgO:sPPLT. The OPO is pumped in the green by a cw diode-pumped Nd:YVO(4) laser at 532 nm and can provide continuously tunable output across 848-1430 nm. Using a 30 mm crystal and double-pass pumping, an oscillation threshold of 2.88 W has been obtained, and single-pass idler powers in excess of 1.51 W have been generated over 1104-1430 nm for 6W of pump power at an extraction efficiency of 25.2% and photon conversion efficiency of 56.7%.

Nanosecond pulsed laser energy and thermal field evolution during second harmonic generation in periodically poled Li Nb O 3 crystals

Efficient generation of widely tunable picosecond pulses from the visible to near-infrared is demonstrated by optical parametric generation and amplification in BiB(3)O(6). Pumped by the second harmonic of an amplified mode-locked Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm, also generated in BiB(3)O(6), a signal and idler tuning range of 740-1893 nm has been achieved with angle tuning under type I (o?e+e) phase-matching in the optical yz-plane. With 40-ps pump pulses of 420-muJ energy, single-pass signal pulse energies of up to 48.6 muJ have been obtained at total OPA pump to signal and idler conversion efficiency as high as 30%. Significant temperature tuning under type I (o?e+e) noncritical interaction along the optical z-axis is also demonstrated, extending the signal tuning range from 740 nm down to 676 nm and idler tuning range from 1893 nm up to 2497 nm. Using second harmonic generation of the amplified signal pulses, also in BiB(3)O(6),wavelength extension to 370-500 nm has been achieved at 24% conversion efficiency, providing 10-muJ pulses across the tuning range. Optical parametric generation and amplification in BiB(3)O(6) under strong two-photon absorption pumped by 210-muJ pulses at 355 nm is also reported, providing amplified signal pulse energies of 14.2 muJ at OPA conversion efficiency as high as 21% and a spectral coverage across 450-1674 nm.

No abstract

High average power nanosecond pulsed light is obtained using a compact all solid state Nd:YAG laser. The laser is operated in Q-switched mode at the 1.3 micron fundamental and internally frequency tripled using two LiB3O5 (LBO) crystals. 4.3 W average power at 440 nm was demonstrated at 3.5 kHz and a pulse width of 150+/-10 ns (FWHM). The beam quality of M2 value is 5+/-1 in both dimensions. The short-term average power stability of the light source is better than 5.6%. Spectral selecting is proposed to increase production efficiency at 440 nm.