High power, widely tunable femtosecond MgO:PPLN optical parametric oscillator

Abstract

We demonstrate a high power, widely tunable femtosecond MgO: PPLN optical parametric oscillator (OPO) at 151 MHz, pumped by a Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb: KGW laser. With a maximum pump power of 7 W, the OPO is capable of delivering as high as 2.2 W of the signal centered around 1500 nm with tunable signal spectrum ranges of 1377-1730 nm at an extraction efficiency of 31.4%, which exhibits a long-term passive power stability better than 0.71% rms over 4h. The maximum idler bandwidths of 185 nm at 3613 nm are obtained across the idler tuning ranges of 2539-4191 nm. By compensating intracavity dispersion, the signal has the shortest pulse duration of 170 fs at 1428 nm.