Multiwatt KTiOPO4 optical parametric oscillators pumped within randomly and linearly polarized Nd:YAG laser cavities

Kin Seng Lai; Ruifen Wu; Poh-Boon Phua

doi:10.1117/12.379928

23 March 2000 Multiwatt KTiOPO₄ optical parametric oscillators pumped within randomly and linearly polarized Nd:YAG laser cavities

Kin Seng Lai, Ruifen Wu, Poh-Boon Phua

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3928, Nonlinear Materials, Devices, and Applications; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.379928
Event: Symposium on High-Power Lasers and Applications, 2000, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

We present 2 experiments on intracavity pumping of a KTiOPO₄ (KTP) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) within a high power 1064nm Nd:YAG laser cavity producing multiwatt level 2-micron outputs. In such high power regime, the Nd:YAG rod laser suffers significant thermally-induced birefringence loss when it is linearly polarized. Hence in the first experiment, we present our intracavity KTP OPO pumped within the simple cavity of an unpolarized Nd:YAG laser. This simple configuration, with 1-micron high reflectors forming the Nd:YAG laser cavity and R equals 75 percent and 100 percent 2-micron mirrors forming the short flat-flat OPO cavity, delivered 6.5W of 2-micron output power at 3kHz Q-switched operation. Next we pumped our intracavity OPO within a more complex polarized Nd:YAG laser cavity. In this second experiment, we compensated for the thermally-induced birefringence loss in the Nd:YAG laser by using a re-entrant laser cavity with a Faraday rotator, and the OPO was pumped within one arm of this set-up. In this case, we also obtained approximately 6.5W of 2-micron output. FInally, studies of the temporal profiles of the 1 and 2-micron laser beams also revealed interesting multiple pulse features in such intracavity OPO output.

Citation Download Citation

Kin Seng Lai, Ruifen Wu, and Poh-Boon Phua "Multiwatt KTiOPO₄ optical parametric oscillators pumped within randomly and linearly polarized Nd:YAG laser cavities", Proc. SPIE 3928, Nonlinear Materials, Devices, and Applications, (23 March 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.379928

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