One-Watt level mid-IR output, singly resonant, continuous-wave optical parametric oscillator pumped by a monolithic diode laser

Abstract

Abstract:We report more than 1.1 Watt of idler power at 3373 nm in a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (SRO), directly pumped by a single-frequency monolithic tapered diode laser. The SRO is based on a periodically poled MgO:LiNbO 3 crystal in a four mirror cavity and is excited by 8.05 W of 1062 nm radiation. The SRO pump power at threshold is 4 W. The internal slope-efficiency and conversion efficiency reach 89% and 44% respectively. The signal and idler waves are temperature tuned in the range of 1541 to 1600 nm and 3154 to 3415 nm respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output obtained for a diode pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO), and the first time a SRO is directly pumped by a monolithic tapered diode laser. Quantum Electron. 15(6), 415-431 (1979 ©2010 Optical Society of America

Power Scaling of CW Crystalline OPOs and Raman Lasers

“…To the best of our knowledge, there is only one demonstration of brightness enhancement (BE) in case of CW OPO [133]. There has been multiple reports of BE in Raman lasers using various crystals [51,52,59,106,121,123,129,138,139,141].…”

“…Its extraordinarily high thermal conductivity of 2000 W/mK (at room temperature)-highest among all known crystals, provides a unique opportunity to stretch the laser output power and brightness to levels not easily accessible by other Raman and OPO gain materials. To the best of our knowledge, there is only one demonstration of brightness enhancement (BE) in case of CW OPO [133]. There been multiple reports of BE in Raman lasers using various crystals [51,52,59,106,121,123,129,138,139,141].…”

“…Due to these complications, most of the CW OPOs generating high output powers were pumped by the near-diffraction-limited beam [47,62,132]. As a result, there are not many OPO demonstrations for beam brightness enhancement except one in which a pump beam of M 2 = 5.5 produced 1.1 W of idler output with a beam quality M 2 = 3.8 [133]. A nanosecond pulsed OPO exhibited an output beam quality of M 2 = 1.7 from a pump laser with a beam quality of M 2 = 29 using a high magnification unstable confocal resonator [134].…”

Continuous‐wave optical parametric oscillator based infrared spectroscopy for sensitive molecular gas sensing

“…The potential drawback of the OA‐ICOS approach is the significantly lower transmission power through the cavity compared with resonant‐coupling methods. Therefore, high‐power sources such as OPOs are rendered to be most suitable, usually, having an output cw power at Watt level , .…”

A compact, CW mid-infrared intra-cavity Nd:Lu0.5Y0.5VO4∖KTA-OPO at 3.5 μm

“…As we know, conventional birefringence crystals with low nonlinear coefficient and walk-off angle have high thresholds for CW OPOs, so CW OPOs have previously been reported using periodically poled crystals with high nonlinear coefficients [13][14][15]. However, noncritical phase matching (NCPM) KTA has the advantage of maximum effective nonlinear coefficient (d eff ) and full elimination of the spatial walk-off.…”