Optical parametric oscillator pumped by femtosecond thin-disk laser

摘要

Pulses from a mode-locked Yb-doped laser (12) are spectrally broadened in an optical fiber (28), and temporally compressed in a grating compressor (32), then frequency-doubled (34) and used to pump an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) (40). The OPO output is tunable over a wavelength range from about 600 nm to about 1100 nm. Mode-locking in the Yb-doped laser (12) is accomplished with a SESAM (14) or by Kerr-lens mode-locking with a Kerr medium (82) and a hard aperture (84).

主权项

1. Laser apparatus, comprising:
a mode-locked laser including a ytterbium-doped gain-medium and arranged to deliver mode-locked laser-radiation pulses having a fundamental wavelength, a first spectral bandwidth, and a first pulse-duration and a repetition period; an optical element arranged to receive the mode-locked pulses from the mode-locked laser and broaden the spectral bandwidth of the pulses to a second spectral bandwidth; a pulse compressor arranged to compress the duration of the bandwidth-broadened pulses to a second duration shorter than the first duration; a first optically nonlinear crystal arranged to frequency convert the compressed pulses to provide frequency converted pump pulses; and an optical parametric oscillator arranged to be optically pumped by the frequency converted pump pulses, the optical parametric oscillator having a resonator including a second optically nonlinear crystal arranged to frequency-convert the pump pulses to signal-pulses having a wavelength longer than that of the frequency converted pump pulses and tunable within a predetermined range.