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We report a stable, high-power, picosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) at 160 MHz repetition rate synchronously pumped by a frequency-doubled mode-locked Yb-fiber laser at 532 nm and tunable in the near-infrared, across 874-1008 nm (signal) and 1126-1359 nm (idler). Using a 30-mm-long MgO:sPPLT crystal, the OPO provides average output power up to 780 mW in the signal at 918.58 nm and 600 mW in the idler at 1242 nm. The device operates stably over many days, even close to degeneracy, exhibiting passive long-term power stability better than 1.8% rms in the signal and 2.4% rms in the idler over 2.5 h at a temperature of 55°C. We investigate spectral and temporal characteristics of the signal pulses under different conditions and demonstrate cavity-length tuning enabled by the dispersion properties of MgO:sPPLT. The output signal pulses have a duration of 2.4 ps at 967 nm.

We present theoretical and experimental study of a continuous-wave, two-crystal, singly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (T-SRO) comprising two identical 30-mm-long crystals of MgO:sPPLT in a four- mirror ring cavity and pumped with two separate pump beams in the green. The idler beam after each crystal is completely out-coupled, while the signal radiation is resonant inside the cavity. Solving the coupled amplitude equations under undepleted pump approximation, we calculate the maximum threshold reduction, parametric gain acceptance bandwidth and closest possible attainable wavelength separation in arbitrary dual-wavelength generation and compare with the experimental results. Although the T-SRO has two identical crystals, the acceptance bandwidth of the device is equal to that of a single-crystal SRO. Due to the division of pump power in two crystals, the T-SRO can handle higher total pump power while lowering crystal damage risk and thermal effects. We also experimentally verify the high power performance of such scheme, providing a total output power of 6.5 W for 16.2 W of green power at 532 nm. We verified coherent energy coupling between the intra-cavity resonant signal waves resulting Raman spectral lines. Based on the T-SRO scheme, we also report a new technique to measure the temperature acceptance bandwidth of the single-pass parametric amplifier across the OPO tuning range.

We report a high-power, single-frequency, continuous-wave (cw) source tunable across 775-807 nm in the near-infrared, based on internal second harmonic generation (SHG) of a cw singly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by a Yb-fiber laser. The compact, all-periodically-poled source employs a 48-mm-long, multigrating MgO doped periodically poled lithium niobate (MgO:PPLN) crystal for the OPO and a 30-mm-long, fan-out grating MgO-doped stoichiometric periodically poled lithium tantalate (MgO:sPPLT) crystal for intracavity SHG, providing as much as 3.7 W of near-infrared power at 793 nm, together with 4 W of idler power at 3232 nm, at an overall extraction efficiency of 28%. Further, the cw OPO is tunable across 3125-3396 nm in the idler, providing as much as 4.3 W at 3133 nm with >3.8  W over 77% of the tuning range together with >3  W of near-infrared power across 56% of SHG tuning range, in high-spatial beam-quality with M2<1.4. The SHG output has an instantaneous linewidth of 8.5 MHz and exhibits a passive power stability better than 3.5% rms over more than 1 min.

We present a theoretical model on the effects of mechanical perturbations on the output power instability of singly-resonant optical parametric oscillators (SR-OPOs). Numerical simulations are performed based on real experimental parameters associated with a SR-OPO designed in our laboratory, which uses periodically-poled LiNbO3 (PPLN) as the nonlinear crystal, where the results of the theoretical model are compared with the measurements. The out-coupled power instability is simulated for a wide range of input pump powers the SR-OPO oscillation threshold. From the results, maximum instability is found to occur at an input pump power of ~1.5 times above the OPO threshold. It is also shown theoretically that the idler instability is susceptible to variations in the cavity length caused by vibrations, with longer cavities capable of generating more stable output power. The validity of the theoretical model is verified experimentally by using a mechanical vibrator in order to vary the SR-OPO resonator length over one cavity mode spacing. It is found that at 1.62 times threshold, the out-coupled idler suffers maximum instability. The results of experimental measurements confirm good agreement with the theoretical model. An intracavity etalon is finally used to improve the idler output power by a factor of ~2.2 at an input pump power of 1.79 times oscillation threshold.

We demonstrate the successful deployment of an antiresonant ring (ARR) interferometer for the attainment of optimum output coupling in a continuous-wave (cw) optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The cw OPO, configured as a singly-resonant oscillator (SRO), is based on a 50-mm-long MgO:PPLN crystal and pumped by cw Ytterbium-fiber laser at 1064 nm, with the ARR interferometer integrated into one arm of the standing-wave cavity. By fine adjustment of the ARR transmission, a continuously variable signal output coupling from 0.8% to 7.3% has been achieved, providing optimum output coupling for signal and optimum power extraction for the idler, at different input pumping levels. The experimental results are compared with theoretical calculations for conventional output-coupled cw SRO, and the study shows that by reducing the insertion loss of the ARR elements, the performance of the ARR-coupled cw SRO can be further enhanced. We also show that the use of the ARR does not lead to any degradation in the cw SRO output beam quality. The proof-of-principle demonstration confirms the effectiveness of the technique for continuous, in situ, and fine control of output coupling in cw OPOs to achieve maximum output power at any arbitrary pumping level above threshold.

We report a stable, high-power, mid-infrared synchronously-pumped optical parametric oscillator (SPOPO) based on MgO:sPPLT, pumped by a 1064 nm, picosecond Yb-fiber laser operating at a repetition rate of 81.1 MHz. The singly resonant SPOPO is tunable over 1531-1642 nm (111 nm) in the near-infrared signal and 3022-3488 nm (466 nm) in the mid-infrared idler, providing a total tuning range of 577 nm. Careful optimization of output coupling results in a signal output power as high as 4.3 W at 1593 nm and a mid-infrared idler power of 2 W at 3204 nm for 13.4 W of pump power at a total extraction efficiency of 47%. The SPOPO can be operated near room temperature, down to 30 °C, and exhibits passive peak-to-peak power stability better than 8.6% at 1568 nm (signal) and 8.2% at 3310 nm (idler) over 13 hours at full power. The output signal pulses have duration of 17.5 ps, with a FWHM spectral bandwidth of 1.4 nm centered at 1568 nm.

We report efficient generation of tunable femtosecond pulses in the red by internal frequency doubling of an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on periodically poled LiNbO3 (PPLN). The OPO, based on a 1-mm-thick PPLN crystal, is synchronously pumped by a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser at 810 nm, providing signal pulses across 1.33-1.57 microm at a 76 MHz repetition rate. Using a 1-mm-thick crystal of BiB3O6 (BIBO) internal to the OPO cavity, we achieve frequency doubling of signal pulses across 665-785 nm with up to 260 mW of average power for 1.51 W of pump. The high nonlinear gain and phase-matching acceptance in PPLN and BIBO permit convenient tuning across the full range by simple detuning of OPO cavity delay. Intracavity dispersion compensation results in near-transform-limited red pulses with durations down to 140 fs for 185 fs input pump pulses.