Temperature-dependent Sellmeier equation in the MIR for the extraordinary refractive index of 5% MgO doped congruent LiNbO<Subscript>3</Subscript>

We present a temperature-dependent Sellmeier equation for the extraordinary refractive index of 5 mol % MgO doped congruent lithium niobate. This equation is adapted for wavelengths in the range of 1.3–5 μm and temperatures between 40 °C and 200 °C. The calculation of the appropriate Sellmeier coefficients is based on the wavelengths of the signal and idler radiation measured for quasi-phase-matched optical parametric generators excited by 10-ns-long, 1064-nm pulses of a Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ laser. PACS 42.65.Ky; 42.70.Mp; 42.65.Yj     

Investigation of the spatial beam quality of pulsed ns-OPOs

This paper reports on an experimental investigation of the spatial beam quality of a pulsed nanosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The OPO is a 355 nm pumped type-I BBO-OPO. The spatial quality of the OPO output is characterized by the M²-parameter in dependence of other experimental parameters such as resonator length, pump-beam diameter, pump-pulse duration and pump energy. The results obtained indicate, that an appropriate choice of these parameters substantially improves the spatial beam quality of the OPO output. Received: 19 November 2002 / Revised version: 3 February 2003 / Published online: 5 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-631/205-3906, E-mail: anstett@rhrk.uni-kl.de     

Reduction of the spectral width and beam divergence of a BBO-OPO by using collinear type-II phase matching and back reflection of the pump beam

We report on the reduction of the divergence and the spectral width of the output of a 355 nm pumped pulsed optical parametric oscillator (OPO) of β-barium borate (BBO). Detailed theoretical investigations indicated that type-IIphase matching in combination with double-passing the pump beam should simultaneously reduce the spectral width and the divergence of the OPO output beam. These predictions are confirmed in the experiments reported in this paper. In fact the bandwidth is reduced by more than a factor of 20 to less than 0.1 nm. Simultaneously the divergence of the OPO waves is reduced in the phase matching plane by more than a factor of 5 to 1.0 mrad. The small divergence and the reduced bandwidth allows efficient frequency doubling of the 5-ns-long visible OPO signal pulses into the UV. Doubling in a 7-mm-long BBO crystal provided conversion efficiencies of up to 35%. Received: 21 August 2000 / Revised version: 11 December 2000 / Published online: 21 March 2001     

Synchronously pumped mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator with an output power exceeding 1?W at 4.5?��m

The generation of tunable mid-infrared picosecond laser radiation in a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) is reported. Numerical calculations were used to optimize the crystal length in order to balance the parametric gain and the absorption losses in the high-absorption regime of lithium niobate. Due to the numerical results, the system was systematically optimized for the mid-infrared output power. An output power of 1.1?W at 4.5???m and of more than 3?W at 3???m were achieved for 6-ps-long pulses with a repetition rate of 160?MHz and an M²<2.     

Widely tunable narrow-linewidth nanosecond optical parametric generator with self-injection seeding

This paper reports a widely tunable narrow-linewidth nanosecond optical parametric generator (OPG) with a pulse-repetition rate of 10 kHz. The OPG consists of a 55-mm-long periodically poled lithium niobate crystal with a domain period of 29.5 m. At an average pump power of 2.0 W the OPG emitted 0.33 W of signal power and 0.17 W of idler power. The wavelength and spectral width of the OPG are controlled by self-injection seeding. For this purpose, a small fraction of the OPGs pulsed signal radiation is used as seed radiation for the next OPG pulse. In order to overlap in time the seed pulse with the succeeding pump pulse, the seed pulse is delayed by a 22-km-long single-mode fiber. For narrowing the spectrum of the seeded OPG output, the seed radiation is spectrally filtered by a tunable fiber Fabry–Perot interferometer (FFPI). The OPG signal radiation could be tuned from 1547 to 1605 nm by changing the OPGs crystal temperature and by tuning simultaneously the FFPI. The corresponding idler wave tuned from 3157 to 3413 nm. Within the whole tuning range, the linewidth of the signal wave was less than 185 MHz. Compared to the 240-GHz linewidth of the free-running OPG, the linewidth of the seeded OPG is thus narrowed by more than three orders of magnitude. By tuning the FFPI, continuous wavelength tuning has been demonstrated within the gain spectrum of the OPG over a range of 820 GHz. PACS 42.65.Yj; 42.79.Nv; 42.79.Qx