Visible Optical Parametric Oscillator Research Articles

Cascaded second-order effects in the femtosecond regime in β-barium borate: self-compression in a visible femtosecond optical parametric oscillator

Cascaded second-order effects are studied in the femtosecond regime in beta-barium borate by use of the Z-scan technique. Large nonlinear phase shifts can be obtained near the second-harmonic-generation phasematching condition for a Ti:sapphire laser. Solution of the nonlinear propagation equations for femtosecond pulses yields good agreement with experiment and also demonstrates that the description of cascaded effects by an effective nonlinear refractive index is no longer valid in the ultrafast domain and that these effects are less efficient for ultrashort pulses. The cascade-induced negative nonlinear phase shift in beta-barium borate is shown to be responsible for the self-compression observed in a prismless femtosecond visible optical parametric oscillator.

Visible optical parametric oscillation in LiB3O5

The successful operation of a visible optical parametric oscillator (OPO) using a LiB3O5 crystal as the nonlinear element is reported. An energy conversion efficiency as high as 22% for a signal wave has been obtained in a 15.9-mm-long crystal. This OPO can generate visible output energy of 2.7 mJ and be continuously tuned from 435 to 1922 nm.

Highly efficient visible urea optical parametric oscillator pumped by a XeCl excimer laser

We report the successful operation of a visible optical parametric oscillator (OPO) that uses urea as the nonlinear medium and is pumped in the near field of an injection-seeded pulsed XeCl excimer laser operating at 308 nm. The OPO can generate continuously tunable radiation from 537 to 720 nm with a single set of dichroic mirrors, and conversion efficiencies as high as 37% have been achieved in a 15-mm-long crystal at 90 degrees phase matching. The influence of crystal double refraction (and hence beam walk-off) on the conversion efficiency across the OPO tuning range is discussed, and some oscillator parameters, including spectral linewidth and temporal behavior, are characterized.

Optical parametric fluorescence and oscillation in urea using an excimer laser

Operation of a visible optical parametric oscillator (OPO) using urea as the non-linear crystal and a line-narrowed XeCl excimer laser as the pump source is reported. Continuously tunable output over the spectral range 572–667 nm has been obtained with 2.5% conversion efficiency. Results of experiments on spontaneous parametric fluorescence in urea for a pump wave at 308 nm are also presented.

Stanford Group Builds Visible CW Parametric Oscillator

A continuously operating visible optical parametric oscillator was recently reported by Bob Byer, Kenneth Oshman, Jim Young and Stephen Harris of Stanford (Appl. Phys. Letters, 1 August). The oscillator uses the cw output of an argon laser at 0.5145 micron as pump and lithium niobate as the nonlinear crystal. The signal wavelength is tunable from 0.6800 to 0.7050 micron with the idler in the corresponding range 2.11 to 1.90 microns in the infrared.