High-power, continuous-wave, singly-resonant, intracavity optical parametric oscillator

A high-power continuous-wave optical parametric oscillator based on the nonlinear material KTiOAsO4 and pumped internal to a tunable Ti:sapphire laser is described. The use of the intracavity pumping approach has enabled operation of a singly resonant oscillator (SRO), resulting in the generation of as much as 1.46 W of infrared power in a 11.5-mm-long crystal. Amplitude-stable signal and idler outputs, each in excess of 500 mW, over the respective wavelength ranges of 1.11-1.20 and 2.44-2.86 mu m have been extracted from the SRO. We demonstrate up to 90% down-conversion of the optimum Ti:sapphire output power to the SRO, confirming our recent theoretical predictions. The performance characteristics of the device demonstrate that practical, stable, and efficient operation of continuous-wave SROs at watt-level output power can be readily achieved in conventional birefringent materials by exploiting the intracavity pumping approach. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.