Abstract

The improved stability of singly resonant optical parametric oscillators (SROPOs, SROs) over doubly resonant optical parametric oscillators (DROPOs) is well known; however, due to the SRO's high oscillation threshold, it's operation has been nearly exclusively restricted to pulsed devices. The first cw SRO was pumped by a resonantly doubled Nd:YAG laser. The OPO was operated near degeneracy, producing outputs with limited tunability at wavelengths near the fundamental of the pump laser (1 µm).¹ Our work is the first report of a broadly tunable cw SRO. We use the 1.064-µm radiation from a Nd:YAG laser to pump periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN)² obtaining tunable radiation in the important 1.5-µm and 3.3-µm regions. The high gain and low loss of PPLN are the key to the operation of this device. The PPLN OPO operated robustly 2-3 times above threshold with a maximum pump depletion of 50%.

© 1996 Optical Society of America