Thermo-optical effect and saturation of nonlinear absorption induced by gray tracking in a 532-nm-pumped KTP optical parametric oscillator

Abstract

We present experiments that show that gray tracking modifies the parametric gain and the generated wavelengths of a KTP optical parametric oscillator pumped at 532 nm near degeneracy. These perturbations occur over a limited range of pump intensity. We propose a satisfactory model that takes into account photochromic damage, the thermo-optical effect, and the combined processes of creation and saturation of a two-photon absorber at 532 nm. The temperature dependence of Sellmeier equations of KTP is also established at 20-200 degrees C.