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
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