51-W average power, 169-fs pulses from an ultrafast non-collinear optical parametric oscillator.

Abstract

We present a high power optical parametric oscillator (OPO) synchronously pumped by the second-harmonic of a modelocked 1030-nm thin-disk laser (TDL) oscillator. The OPO delivers an average power of 51.1 W around degeneracy (1030 nm) with a 10.2-MHz repetition-rate. After extra-cavity dispersion compensation using dispersive mirrors, we obtain a pulse duration of 169 fs, which is 4.6× shorter than the TDL pulse duration of 770 fs. The TDL has 250W average power, which is converted to 215W at the second-harmonic. Hence, the OPO exhibits a high photon conversion efficiency of 47% (ratio of signal photons to 515-nm pump photons). Moreover, the OPO generates a peak power of 26.2 MW, which is very similar to the 28.0-MW peak power of the TDL. To facilitate continuous tuning around degeneracy and convenient extraction of the pump and idler beams, the OPO is operated in a noncollinear configuration. A linear cavity configuration was chosen since it offers easy alignment and straightforward cavity length tuning. To the best of our knowledge, this source has the highest average power generated by any ultrafast OPO, and the shortest pulse duration for any >5-W OPO. This result is an important step to adding wavelength tunability to high power Yb-based laser sources without the complexity of either laser or parametric amplifier systems.