Stable, high-power, Yb-fiber-based, picosecond ultraviolet generation at 355 nm using BiB_3O_6

Abstract

We report a stable, high-power, high-repetition-rate, picosecond ultraviolet (UV) source at 355 nm based on single-pass sum-frequency generation of a mode-locked Yb-fiber laser at 1064 nm in the nonlinear crystal BiB3O6. By performing single-pass second-harmonic generation (SHG) in a 30-mm-long LiB3O5 crystal, up to 9.1 W of average green power at 532 nm is obtained at a single-pass SHG efficiency of 54%. The generated green pulses have a duration of 16.2 ps at a repetition rate of 79.5 MHz, with a passive power stability better than 0.5% rms and a pointing stability <12 μrad over 1 h, in high beam quality. The green radiation is then sum-frequency-mixed with the fundamental in a 10-mm-long BiB3O6 crystal, providing as much as 1.2 W of average UV power, at an infrared-to-UV conversion efficiency of 7.2%, with a passive power stability better than 0.4% rms over 3 h and a pointing stability <45 μrad over 1 h, in TEM00 spatial profile.