High power, widely tunable femtosecond MgO:PPLN optical parametric oscillator

Abstract

We demonstrate a high power, widely tunable femtosecond MgO-doped periodically poled lithium niobate (MgO:PPLN) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) at 151 MHz, pumped by a Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:KGW laser. With a maximum pump power of 7 W, the OPO is capable of delivering as high as 2.2 W of the signal centered around 1500 nm with tunable signal spectrum ranges of 1377 nm–1730 nm at an extraction efficiency of 31.4%, which exhibits a long-term passive power stability better than 0.71% rms over 4 h. The maximum idler bandwidths of 185 nm at 3613 nm are obtained across the idler tuning ranges of 2539 nm–4191 nm. By compensating intracavity dispersion, the signal has the shortest pulse duration of 170 fs at 1428 nm.