High-power, variable repetition rate, picosecond optical parametric oscillator pumped by an amplified gain-switched diode

Abstract

We demonstrate a picosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) that is synchronously pumped by a fiber-amplified gain-switched laser diode. At 24W of pump power, up to 7.3W at 1.54microm and 3.1W at 3.4microm is obtained in separate output beams. The periodically poled MgO-doped LiNbO(3) OPO operates with ~17ps pulses at a fundamental repetition rate of 114.8MHz but can be switched to higher repetition rates up to ~1GHz. Tunabilty between 1.4microm and 1.7microm (signal) and 2.9microm and 4.4microm (idler) is demonstrated by translating the nonlinear crystal to access different poling-period gratings and typical M(2) values of 1.1 by 1.2 (signal) and 1.6 by 3.2 (idler) are measured at high power for the singly resonant oscillator.

56-W Frequency-Doubled Source at 530 nm Pumped by a Single-Mode, Single-Polarization, Picosecond, Yb$^{3+}$-Doped Fiber MOPA

“…High average power laser sources at 530 nm with good beam quality are in demand for a number of applications including material processing [1], medical treatments [2], pumping OPOs [3], and laser displays [4] to name but a few. In material processing green laser sources perform better than their counterpart IR sources in many applications including marking, precision microfabrication, trimming etc.…”

Diode-Pumped High Energy and High Average Power All-Solid-State Picosecond Amplifier Systems

“…Finally, the 34 mJ picosecond pulses from end-pumped amplifiers were injected into the last amplifier, a module consisting of a Φ8 × 185 mm 3 Nd:YAG side-pumped by CW laser diodes. The maximum allowed pump power of 1000 W could be obtained at the wavelength of 808 nm.…”

“…A picosecond laser operating at a repetition rate of a few kHz, with both high peak power and high average power, is an excellent source for optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA), an optical parametric oscillator (OPO), optical parametric generation (OPG), and UV light generation [1][2][3][4]. At ELI-Beamlines, two picosecond lasers with 1 kHz, >100 mJ, were used to pump an OPCPA system as a part of an X-ray pump laser [5].…”

Advances in ultrafast optical parametric oscillators

“…The system achieved these high energies by combining a high-power Yb:fiber pump laser with a 9.8-m long extended resonator, made possible by intracavity relay imaging [11,12]. Very recently, a picosecond OPO was reported that was synchronously pumped by a fiber-amplified gain-switched laser diode [13]. This system produced 17-ps signal pulses at 114.8 MHz, with energies of up to 64 nJ, and was tunable from 1.4 -1.7 μm.Sec.…”