High-efficiency mid-infrared ZnGeP2 optical parametric oscillator directly pumped by a lamp-pumped, Q-switched CrTmHo:YAG laser

Nieuwenhuis, A.F. and Lee, C.J. and Slot van der, P.J.M. and Lindsay, I.D. and Gross, P. and Boller, K.-J. (2008) High-efficiency mid-infrared ZnGeP2 optical parametric oscillator directly pumped by a lamp-pumped, Q-switched CrTmHo:YAG laser. Optics Letters, 33 (1). pp. 52-54. ISSN 0146-9592

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Abstract:	We report a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (SRO) based on a ZnGeP2 crystal directly pumped by a lamp-pumped Q-switched CrTmHo:YAG laser. The IR was tunable from 4.7 to 7.8 μm via crystal angle tuning. A maximum optical to optical efficiency of 56% was obtained from the pump (2.09 μm) to total IR at a pump energy of 6.5 mJ. The corresponding idler energy was 1.45 mJ. The SRO was measured to have a slope efficiency of 64% and a threshold of 1 mJ. The spatial beam quality of the idler, characterized by the M2 parameter, was 1.38 when the SRO was pumped at 2.5 times threshold. These results show that ZnGeP2 optical parametric oscillators directly pumped by a CrTmHo:YAG laser can be operated efficiently, while maintaining good IR beam quality.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2008 Optical Society of America
Faculty:	Science and Technology (TNW)
Research Group:	Laser Physics and Nonlinear Optics (LPNO)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/60707
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.33.000052
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