Beam quality and efficiency of ns-pulsed high-power mid-IR ZGP OPOs compared in linear and non-planar ring resonators

Abstract

We compare the performance of ns-pulsed mid-infrared optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) based on ZGP crystals in a simple linear cavity and two non-planar image-rotating resonators. Our 2 μm pump source is a 68 W 10 kHz diffraction limited Ho:LLF MOPA system. In a linear cavity, it allows us to generate up to 38 W of the total average power with M²<2.2 from the ZGP OPO in the 3-5 μm range. Beam quality and stability are significantly improved in both types of non-planar ring resonators (M²<1.8 in RISTRA and M²<1.4 in FIRE), while the total average power is above 21 W. Factors influencing the beam quality such as average power and pump repetition rate are studied in detail.