Broadband tuning of ring-type cavity-dumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator in the near-infrared.

ABSTRACT

We report a cavity-dumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO) with a ring-type cavity configuration, which is based on periodically poled lithium niobate gain synchronously pumped by a mode-locked Tisapphire laser. Because of reduced cavity loss and group velocity dispersion inherent to ring-cavity employment, a wide wavelength tuning capability from 1.02 to 1.65 µm was achieved by the simple displacement of a cavity mirror. At a wavelength of 1.28 µm, the cavity-dumped system provides femtosecond pulses with 42 nJ energy and 50% dumping efficiency. The group delay dispersion (GDD) of the OPO cavity could be characterized through the wavelength tuning behavior with cavity displacement, and its validity was confirmed by the numerical GDD calculation of each optical component within the cavity.