A high energy, wavelength and repetition rate tunable eye-safe picosecond optical parametric oscillator

Abstract

A wavelength and pulse repetition rate (PRR) tunable eye-safe picosecond (ps) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) with high energy is developed using a novel method that operates the OPO in a ps regenerative amplifier (RA). With this method, the PRR can be conveniently tuned and a compact kHz ps OPO can be achieved with a pulse energy of 1-3 orders of magnitude higher than previous works. Based on an angle phase matching type II (θ = 41.4°, ϕ = 0°) KTA crystal, signal wavelength tunability from 1501 nm to 1565 nm is realized at the PRRs of 5 kHz and 10 kHz, respectively. The highest pulse energy of 21.6 µJ with a pulse width of about 6 ps is obtained at the PRR of 5 kHz and a wavelength of 1532 nm.