High-average-power mid-infrared ${\mathrm{ZnGeP}}_2$ optical parametric oscillator with a wavelength-dependent polarization rotator

Abstract

A wavelength-dependent polarization rotator is used to transform the orthogonal polarizations of the signal and idler of a near-degenerate type II KTP optical parametric oscillator (OPO) into a common polarization state. This common polarization allows a single ${\mathrm{ZnGeP}}_2$ OPO to fully utilize the $2\mu \mathrm{m}$ signal and idler KTP OPO outputs in a mid-IR conversion. The simple design of the wavelength-dependent polarization rotator yields a compact source that simultaneously generates four mid-IR wavelengths collinearly with a total mid-IR average power of 5.5 W at $\mathrm{a}>15\mathrm{kHz}$ pulse repetition rate.

© 2006 Optical Society of America

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