We describe the design and performance of a high-peak-power, ns-pulsed, tunable OPO/OPA light source. The use of a volume Bragg grating output coupler in a 532-nm-pumped, singly-resonant KTP OPO provides stable, narrow-band (< 2-cm^-1) and frequency-tunable generation of light in the vicinity of 1 micron. Subsequent phase-coherent amplification of the signal-wave pulses in a single-pass, 532-nm-pumped KTP OPA provides >20 dB gain (up to 15 mJ pulse energy and 3 MW peak power). One frequency-doubled unstable-resonator Nd:YAG laser provides pump light for both OPO and OPA. The amplified signal wave is single-pass frequency-doubled to the blue-green in non-critically-phase-matched LBO, and frequency-doubled to the ultraviolet in critically-phase-matched CLBO, with efficiencies exceeding 50% and 25%, respectively.

Date Published: 27 February 2009
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 7193, Solid State Lasers XVIII: Technology and Devices, 71930R (27 February 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.809405

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7193:
Solid State Lasers XVIII: Technology and Devices
W. Andrew Clarkson; Norman Hodgson; Ramesh K. Shori, Editor(s)