Controllable Duration And Repetition-Rate Picosecond Pulses From A High-Average-Power Op-Gaas Opo

We report an orientation-patterned gallium arsenide (OP-GaAs) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) offering a high degree of temporal flexibility with controllable pulse repetition rates from 100 MHz to 1 GHz and pulse durations from similar to 95 ps to similar to 1.1 ns. The maximum average power of 9.2-W signal (3.3 mu m) and 4.5-W idler (4.9 mu m) was obtained at a repetition rate of 100 MHz and a pulse duration of similar to 95 ps, with a pump power of 34.3 W and at a slope efficiency of 45.4%. The corresponding total average output power of 13.7 W is the highest power achieved to date from an OP-GaAs OPO, to the best of our knowledge. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.