Abstract

The quest for higher performance optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) has been dominated largely by the pump laser requirements. Pump lasers with moderate average power, high peak power, good beam quality and low cost have not been readily available. Therefore, little data has been accumulated on the effects of average power operation in an OPO. A pump laser was constructed that has a high pulse repetition frequency (PRF), 1 Hz to 20 KHz, a modelocked/Q-switched temporal format, and an average power of greater than 40 Watts. Using this source, several types of synchronously pumped OPOs were tested for average power output and thermal effects. The highest performance to date was achieved with a LiNbO₃ SRO in a ring resonator. LiNbO₃ was the crystal chosen for its reasonable d_eff, thermal properties, and ease of obtaining large, good quality crystals.

© 1994 Optical Society of America