Development of a Mid-infrared CW Optical Parametric Oscillator Based on Fan-out Grating MgO:PPLN Pumped at 1064 nm

Abstract

We report development of a frequency-stabilized mid-infrared continuous-wave (cw) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a fan-out grating MgO:PPLN crystal pumped at 1064 nm. The OPO resonator was designed as a pump-enhanced standing-wave cavity that resonates to the pump and signal beams. To realize stable operation of the OPO, we applied a modified Pound-Drever-Hall technique, which is a well-known method for powerful laser frequency stabilization. Tuning a poling period of the fan-out grating of the crystal allows wavelength-tunable OPO outputs from 1510 nm to 1852 nm and from 2500 nm to 3600 nm for signal and idler beams, respectively. At the idler wavelengths of 2500 nm, 3000 nm and 3500 nm, we achieved more than 50 mW of output powers at a pumping power of 1.1 W. The long-term stability of the OPO was confirmed by recording the power and wavelength variations of the idler for an hour.