Abstract

Recent demonstrations of continuous wave OPOs using diode-pumped solid-state lasers have demonstrated the utility of these devices as sources of high spectral and spatial quality output widely tunable in the near and mid-infrared region. Direct diode-pumping can provide a more efficient, compact source with similar properties. To date, stable diode-pumped CW OPOs have been demonstrated only using external cavity diode lasers and these have in general required a semiconductor amplifier to provide sufficient power to reach OPO oscillation threshold [1,2]. We report the first demonstration of a stable CW OPO pumped by an internally grating-stabilized diode laser. The device is a discrete cavity doubly resonant OPO based on periodically-poled Lithium Niobate. It is pumped by the output of a commercial 150mW distributed Bragg grating (DBR) diode laser (SDL-5722-H1). The OPO operates on a single frequency at both signal and idler, with a linewidth ~3MHz. Stable mode-hop free operation of this device has been observed for up to 90 minutes.

© 2000 Optical Society of America