High-power, fiber-laser-pumped, picosecond optical parametric oscillator based on MgO:sPPLT

High-performance Kerr microresonator optical parametric oscillator on a silicon chip

Optical parametric oscillation (OPO) is distinguished by its wavelength access, that is, the ability to flexibly generate coherent light at wavelengths that are dramatically different from the pump laser, and in principle bounded solely by energy conservation between the input pump field and the output signal/idler fields. As society adopts advanced tools in quantum information science, metrology, and sensing, microchip OPO may provide an important path for accessing relevant wavelengths. However, a practical source of coherent light should additionally have high conversion efficiency and high output power. Here, we demonstrate a silicon photonics OPO device with unprecedented performance. Our OPO device, based on the third-order (χ⁽³⁾) nonlinearity in a silicon nitride microresonator, produces output signal and idler fields widely separated from each other in frequency ( > 150 THz), and exhibits a pump-to-idler conversion efficiency up to 29 % with a corresponding output idler power of > 18 mW on-chip. This performance is achieved by suppressing competitive processes and by strongly overcoupling the output light. This methodology can be readily applied to existing silicon photonics platforms with heterogeneously-integrated pump lasers, enabling flexible coherent light generation across a broad range of wavelengths with high output power and efficiency.

Investigation of Mid-Infrared Broadband Second-Harmonic Generation in Non-Oxide Nonlinear Optic Crystals

The mid-infrared (mid-IR) continuum generation based on broadband second harmonic generation (SHG) (or difference frequency generation) is of great interest in a wide range of applications such as free space communications, environmental monitoring, thermal imaging, high-sensitivity metrology, gas sensing, and molecular fingerprint spectroscopy. The second-order nonlinear optic (NLO) crystals have been spotlighted as a material platform for converting the wavelengths of existing lasers into the mid-IR spectral region or for realizing tunable lasers. In particular, the spectral coverage could be extended to ~19 µm with non-oxide NLO crystals. In this paper, we theoretically and numerically investigated the broadband SHG properties of non-oxide mid-IR crystals in three categories: chalcopyrite semiconductors, defect chalcopyrite, and orthorhombic ternary chalcogenides. The technique is based on group velocity matching between interacting waves in addition to birefringent phase matching. We will describe broadband SHG characteristics in terms of beam propagation directions, spectral positions of resonance, effective nonlinearities, spatial walk-offs between interacting beams, and spectral bandwidths. The results will show that the spectral bandwidths of the fundamental wave allowed for broadband SHG to reach several hundreds of nm. The corresponding SH spectral range spans from 1758.58 to 4737.18 nm in the non-oxide crystals considered in this study. Such broadband SHG using short pulse trains can potentially be applied to frequency up-conversion imaging in the mid-IR region, in information transmission, and in nonlinear optical signal processing.

Optical parametric oscillator pumped by a 100-kHz burst-mode Yb-doped fiber laser

We demonstrate an optical parametric oscillator pumped at a repetition rate of 100 kHz by a burst-mode Yb-doped fiber laser. Pulse energies of 1.5 µJ were generated with five 4.8-µJ pump pulses. Pulse-to-pulse fluctuations could be suppressed even when only five pump pulses were used. The measured pulse length was 190 fs, which was considerably shorter than the 350-fs pump pulse length. The burst-mode operation is an easy and powerful way to increase the pulse energies of optical parametric oscillators pumped with femtosecond pulses.

Yb-fiber-pumped, high-beam-quality, idler-resonant mid-infrared picosecond optical parametric oscillator

We report an Yb-fiber-pumped picosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) delivering high average power in excellent beam quality throughout the mid-infrared (mid-IR). Using MgO:PPLN as the nonlinear crystal and configured as a singly-resonant oscillator in the mid-IR idler wave, the OPO provides up to 3.5 W average power in high spatial quality with M2<1.8 across a continuous tuning range of 4028-2198 nm, with M²<1.5 at 4000 nm. It can also deliver as much as 4.3 W of signal power in an output beam with M2<1.4 across 1446-2062 nm. The extracted idler exhibits a passive power stability better than 0.46% rms over 1 hour across the entire mid-IR tuning range. We have also investigated OPO cavity length detuning behavior about the zero-group-velocity-mismatch crossing point and its effects on output power.

Picosecond difference-frequency-generation in orientation-patterned gallium phosphide

We report the generation of tunable high-repetition-rate picosecond radiation in the mid-infrared using the new quasi-phase-matched nonlinear material of orientation-patterned gallium phosphide (OP-GaP). The source is realized by single-pass difference-frequency-generation (DFG) between the output signal of a picosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) tunable across 1609-1637 nm with input pump pulses at 1064 nm in OP-GaP, resulting in tunable radiation across 3040-3132 nm. Using a 40-mm-long crystal, we have generated up to 57 mW of DFG average power at ~80 MHz repetition rate for a pump power of 5 W and signal power of 0.9 W, with >30 mW over >50% of the tuning range. The DFG source exhibits a passive power stability better than 3.2% rms over 1 hour in good spatial beam quality. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first picosecond frequency conversion source based on OP-GaP.

High-power, widely tunable, room-temperature picosecond optical parametric oscillator based on cylindrical 5%MgO:PPLN

We report a high-power picosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on cylindrical MgO:PPLN synchronously pumped by an Yb-fiber laser. The singly resonant OPO is tunable in the near-infrared signal across 1413-1900 nm and mid-infrared idler over 2418-4307 nm by angle tuning of the crystal at room temperature. With non-optimized output coupling of ∼10%, the OPO simultaneously delivers 2.4 W of signal at 1664 nm and 1.7 W of idler at 2950 nm at an overall extraction efficiency of ∼45% with high beam-pointing stability <30  μrad and <14  μrad for the signal and idler, respectively. The generated signal and idler exhibit passive power stability better than 1% rms and 0.8% rms over 15 h, respectively, in high beam quality with TEM(00) profile. The extracted signal pulses from the OPO have duration of 15.2 ps with a spectral bandwidth of 0.7 nm, corresponding to a time-bandwidth product of ΔυΔτ∼1.2.

Compact high power mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator pumped by a gain-switched fiber laser with "figure-of-h" pulse shape

We demonstrate a compact high power mid-infrared (MIR) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by a gain-switched linearly polarized, pulsed fiber laser. The gain-switched fiber laser was constructed with a piece of Yb doped polarization maintaining (PM) fiber, a pair of fiber Bragg gratings written into the matched passive PM fiber and 6 pigtailed pump laser diodes working at 915 nm with 30 W output peak power each. By modulating the pulse width of the pump laser diode, simple pedestal-free pulse shape or pedestal-free trailing pulse shape ("figure-of-h" as we call it) could be achieved from the gain-switched fiber laser. The laser was employed as the pump of a two-channel, periodically poled magnesium oxide lithium niobate-based OPO system. High power MIR emission was generated with average output power of 5.15 W at 3.8 μm channel and 8.54 W at 3.3 μm channel under the highest pump power of 45 W. The corresponding pump-to-idler conversion efficiency was computed to be 11.7% and 19.1%, respectively. Experimental results verify a significant improvement to signal-to-idler conversion efficiency by using "figure-of-h" pulses over simple pedestal-free pulses. Compared to the master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) fiber laser counterpart, the presented gain switched fiber laser is more attractive in OPO pumping due to its compactness and simplicity which are beneficial to construction of OPO systems for practical MIR applications.

Temperature insensitive, high-power cascaded optical parametric oscillator based on an aperiodically poled lithium niobate crystal

We report a novel temperature insensitive, APMgLN-based, high-power cascaded optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by an Ytterbium-doped fiber laser. A monolithic APMgLN crystal was designed to compensate the phase mismatches for the nonlinear conversions from the pump to the idler and the primary signal to the idler simultaneously in a wide temperature range. Efficient parametric conversion with pump-to-idler conversion efficiency over 15% and slope efficiency higher than 20% was realized from 25 °C to 55 °C. The idler wavelength was down-shifted from 3.82 μm to 3.78 μm accordingly during the temperature rise. The highest idler power of 4.1 W at 3.8 μm under the pump power of 26.5 W was recorded which was improved by ~32% in pump-to-idler conversion efficiency when compared with the PPMgLN-based conventional OPO, in which the highest idler output power was 3.1W under the same pump and thermal condition.

Fiber-laser-based green-pumped picosecond MgO:sPPLT optical parametric oscillator

We report a stable, high-power, picosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) at 160 MHz repetition rate synchronously pumped by a frequency-doubled mode-locked Yb-fiber laser at 532 nm and tunable in the near-infrared, across 874-1008 nm (signal) and 1126-1359 nm (idler). Using a 30-mm-long MgO:sPPLT crystal, the OPO provides average output power up to 780 mW in the signal at 918.58 nm and 600 mW in the idler at 1242 nm. The device operates stably over many days, even close to degeneracy, exhibiting passive long-term power stability better than 1.8% rms in the signal and 2.4% rms in the idler over 2.5 h at a temperature of 55°C. We investigate spectral and temporal characteristics of the signal pulses under different conditions and demonstrate cavity-length tuning enabled by the dispersion properties of MgO:sPPLT. The output signal pulses have a duration of 2.4 ps at 967 nm.

Tunable, high-energy, mid-infrared, picosecond optical parametric generator based on CdSiP2

We report a tunable, high-energy, single-pass optical parametric generator (OPG) based on the nonlinear material, cadmium silicon phosphide, CdSiP(2). The OPG is pumped by a cavity-dumped, passively mode-locked, diode-pumped Nd:YAG oscillator, providing 25 µJ pulses in 20 ps at 5 Hz. The pump energy is further boosted by a flashlamp-pumped Nd:YAG amplifier to 2.5 mJ. The OPG is temperature tunable over 1263-1286 nm (23 nm) in the signal and 6153-6731 nm (578 nm) in the idler. Using the single-pass OPG configuration, we have generated signal pulse energy as high as 636 µJ at 1283 nm, together with idler pulse energy of 33 µJ at 6234 nm, for 2.1 mJ of input pump pulse energy. The generated signal pulses have durations of 24 ps with a FWHM spectral bandwidth of 10.4 nm at central wavelength of 1276 nm. The corresponding idler spectrum has a FWHM bandwidth of 140 nm centered at 6404 nm.

High-power, Yb-fiber-laser-pumped, picosecond parametric source tunable across 752-860 nm

We report a stable, high-power source of picosecond pulses in the near-infrared based on intracavity second harmonic generation (SHG) of a MgO:PPLN optical parametric oscillator synchronously pumped at 81 MHz by a mode-locked Yb-fiber laser. By exploiting the large spectral acceptance bandwidth for Type I (oo→e) SHG in β-BaB2O4 and a 5 mm crystal, we have generated picosecond pulses over 752-860 nm spectral range under minimal angle tuning, with as much as 3.5 W of output power at 778 nm and >2  W over 73% of the tuning range, in good beam quality with TEM00 spatial profile and M2<1.4. The SHG output pulses have durations of 15.2 ps, with a spectral bandwidth of ∼3.4  nm at 784 nm. In addition, the oscillator simultaneously provides a signal power of >1  W over 1505-1721 nm (25 THz) and idler power >1.8  W over 2787-3630 nm (25 THz), corresponding to a total (signal plus idler) tuning range of 1059 nm. The SHG, signal, and idler output exhibit passive long-term power stability better than 1.6%, 1.3%, and 1.6% rms, respectively, over 14 h.