Synchronously pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator with broadband chirped mirrors

Abstract

We present results obtained during investigation of synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (SPOPO) with broadband complementary chirped mirror pairs (CMP). The SPOPO based on β– BBO nonlinear crystal is pumped by second harmonic of femtosecond Yb:KGW laser and provides signal pulses tunable over spectral range from 625 to 980 nm. More than 500 mW are generated in the signal beam, giving up to 27 % pump power to signal power conversion efficiency. The plane SPOPO cavity mirror pairs were specially designed to provide 99 % reflection in broad spectral range corresponding to signal wavelength tuning (630–1030 nm) and to suppress group delay dispersion (GDD) oscillations down to ±10 fs 2 . Dispersion properties of designed mirrors were tested with white light interferometer (WLI) and attributed to the SPOPO tuning behaviour.