High-power multichannel PPMgLN-based optical parametric oscillator pumped by a master oscillation power amplification-structured Q-switched fiber laser.

We experimentally demonstrated a compact fiber laser-pumped multichannel PPMgLN-based optical parametric oscillator (OPO) generating total OPO output power of 15.8, 15.2, 14.2, 12.9, and 8.8 W with idler output power of 4.7, 4.3, 4.1, 3.3, and 2.1 W at the wavelength of 3.43, 3.63, 3.72, 3.83, and 3.99 μm, respectively. The OPO was pumped by a fully fiberized polarization maintaining (PM) ytterbium-doped pulsed fiber master oscillation power amplifier (MOPA) operating at 1064 nm at a repetition rate of 65 kHz with effective pump power of 28.7 W. The MOPA system was constructed with an acousto-optic Q-switched fiber laser seed and only one stage PM fiber amplifier without any free space components, which makes the pump system compact and stable in the long-term. Comparisons on efficiencies and signal wavelength shifts between different channels showed that the idler absorption was the main factor preventing high average-power OPO operation with long idler wavelength.

[1]  Yonghang Shen,et al.  Widely tunable high power OPO based on a periodically poled MgO doped lithium niobate crystal , 2007 .

[2]  J. C. van den Heuvel,et al.  Development of a mid-infrared laser for study of infrared countermeasures techniques , 2004, SPIE Security + Defence.

[3]  Da-Wun Chen,et al.  Low noise 10-W cw OPO generation near 3 /spl mu/m MgO doped PPLN , 2005, (CLEO). Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2005..

[4]  Wei Liu,et al.  Efficient parametric conversion from 1.06 to 3.8 μm by an aperiodically poled cascaded lithium niobate. , 2011, Optics letters.

[5]  Mathieu Faucher,et al.  High power cladding light strippers , 2008, SPIE LASE.

[6]  Ady Arie,et al.  Temperature and wavelength dependent refractive index equations for MgO-doped congruent and stoichiometric LiNbO3 , 2008 .

[7]  Shaif-ul Alam,et al.  Large aperture PPMgLN based high-power optical parametric oscillator at 3.8 µm pumped by a nanosecond linearly polarized fiber MOPA. , 2012, Optics express.

[8]  Xingbin Wei,et al.  High-efficiency mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator based on PPMgO:CLN. , 2009, Optics letters.

[9]  Tao Chen,et al.  All-fiberized MOPA structured single-mode pulse Yb fiber laser with a linearly polarized output power of 30 W , 2009 .

[10]  Shaochang Su,et al.  Extra-cavity, widely tunable, continuous wave MgO-doped PPLN optical parametric oscillator pumped with a Nd:YVO4 laser , 2009 .

[11]  G. K. Samanta,et al.  Optimally-output-coupled, 17.5 W, fiber-laser-pumped continuous-wave optical parametric oscillator , 2011 .

[12]  David J. Richardson,et al.  High power fiber lasers: current status and future perspectives [Invited] , 2010 .

[13]  Yonghang Shen,et al.  PPMgLN-Based High-Power Optical Parametric Oscillator Pumped by Yb $^{{\bm 3}{\bm +}}$-Doped Fiber Amplifier Incorporates Active Pulse Shaping , 2009, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[14]  Ady Arie,et al.  Improving the efficiency of an optical parametric oscillator by tailoring the pump pulse shape. , 2010, Optics express.

[15]  Yonghang Shen,et al.  High-efficiency semi-external-cavity-structured periodically poled MgLN-based optical parametric oscillator with output power exceeding 9.2 W at 3.82 microm. , 2010, Optics letters.

[16]  L. Goldberg,et al.  Detection of CO in air by diode-pumped 4.6-microm difference-frequency generation in quasi-phase-matched LiNbO(3). , 1996, Optics letters.

[17]  D. Reid,et al.  Yb:fiber-laser-pumped high-energy picosecond optical parametric oscillator. , 2009, Optics express.

[18]  T. Taira,et al.  High-energy quasi-phase-matched optical parametric oscillation in a periodically poled MgO:LiNbO3 device with a 5 mm x 5 mm aperture. , 2005, Optics letters.

[19]  D. Hanna,et al.  Compact, high-pulse-energy, picosecond optical parametric oscillator. , 2010, Optics letters.

[20]  A. Esteban‐Martin,et al.  Efficient, high-power, ytterbium-fiber-laser-pumped picosecond optical parametric oscillator. , 2010, Optics letters.

[21]  R. Byer,et al.  93% pump depletion, 3.5-W continuous-wave, singly resonant optical parametric oscillator. , 1996, Optics letters.

[22]  M. Fejer,et al.  Quasi-phase-matched optical parametric oscillators in bulk periodically poled LiNbO 3 , 1995 .