High brightness widely tunable, hundred picosecond mid-IR MgO:PPLN optical parametric oscillator with short cavity

A high brightness hundred picosecond (ps) mid-infrared tunable optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on MgO doped periodically poled lithium niobate (MgO: PPLN) was demonstrated. The pumping source was provided by a cascade amplified microchip laser at 10 kHz with pulse width of 466 ps. The idler wavelength tuning from 2.8 to 4.3 μ m was achieved by the combination of period and temperature tuning. The maximum idler average output power was 262 mW at 2.8 μ m with a pulse duration of 252 ps, corresponding to 6.7% conversion efficiency. The average beam quality factor was measured to be M 2 = 2.46, resulting in a brightness value of 0.55 MW sr cm −2 . Pulse width of 209 ps at 4.3 μ m, which was the shortest pulse width from a short cavity OPO to our best knowledge.