Abstract

We demonstrate improved signal and idler-beam quality of a 3-mm-aperture quasi-phase-matched RbTiOAsO₄ optical parametric oscillator through use of a confocal unstable resonator as compared with a plane-parallel resonator. Both oscillators were singly resonant, and the periodically poled RbTiOAsO₄ crystal generated a signal at 1.56 µm and an idler at 3.33 µm when pumped at 1.064 µm. We compared the beam quality produced by the 1.2-magnification confocal unstable resonator with the beam quality produced by the plane-parallel resonator by measuring the signal and the idler beam M ² value. We also investigated the effect of pump-beam intensity distribution by comparing the result of a Gaussian and a top-hat intensity profile pump beam. We generated a signal beam of M ² ≈ 7 and an idler beam of M ² ≈ 2.5 through use of an unstable resonator and a Gaussian intensity profile pump beam. This corresponds to an increase of a factor of approximately 2 in beam quality for the signal and a factor of 3 for the idler, compared with the beam quality of the plane-parallel resonator optical parametric oscillator.

© 2001 Optical Society of America

Single-mode near-infrared optical parametric oscillator amplifier based on periodically poled KTiOPO₄

Glenn W. Baxter, Philip Schlup, Iain T. McKinnie, Jonas Hellström, and Fredrik Laurell
Appl. Opt. 40(36) 6659-6662 (2001)

Compact, continuous-wave, singly resonant optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled RbTiOAsO₄ in a Nd:YVO₄ laser

A. Carleton, D. J. M. Stothard, I. D. Lindsay, M. Ebrahimzadeh, and M. H. Dunn
Opt. Lett. 28(7) 555-557 (2003)

Continuous-wave singly resonant optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled RbTiOAsO₄

T. J. Edwards, G. A. Turnbull, M. H. Dunn, M. Ebrahimzadeh, Håkan Karlsson, Gunnar Arvidsson, and Fredrik Laurell
Opt. Lett. 23(11) 837-839 (1998)

Broadly tunable infrared femtosecond optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled RbTiOAsO₄

D. T. Reid, Z. Penman, M. Ebrahimzadeh, W. Sibbett, H. Karlsson, and F. Laurell
Opt. Lett. 22(18) 1397-1399 (1997)

Nanosecond optical parametric oscillator based on large-aperture periodically poled RbTiOAsO₄

H. Karlsson, M. Olson, G. Arvidsson, F. Laurell, U. Bäder, A. Borsutzky, R. Wallenstein, S. Wickström, and M. Gustafsson
Opt. Lett. 24(5) 330-332 (1999)