Abstract

Optical parametric oscillators (OPO) can be used to generate a widely-tunable mid-IR radiation.¹ OPO can take place both outside and inside the laser cavity, but the intracavity generation is not very stable. Recently, intracavity difference-frequency generation in periodically-poled LiNbO₃ (PPLN) was also demonstrated.² Most recently, we proposed a novel scheme for efficient parametric generation of mid-IR light by use of an optical cavity, incorporating a semiconductor nonlinear medium and a semiconductor laser amplifier.³ Here, as a proof of concept demonstration, we report the OPO based in periodically-poled LiNbO₃ in the presence of an intracavity Nd:YVO₄ laser amplifier. We have successfully reduced the OPO threshold by as much as factor of 6 by pumping the amplifier within a wide range of powers.

© 2002 Optical Society of America