Widely tunable single-frequency pulsed optical parametric oscillator

The spectral output of a nanosecond dual-cavity doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator has been investigated versus the relative length of the signal and idler cavities. Regions of stable single-frequency operation are determined by use of a type II phase-matched KTP crystal and compared with the predictions of a mode-overlap model. A wide mode-hop-free tuning range is obtained over 40 GHz, limited only by piezoelectric biases. Furthermore, discrete tuning is investigated over the full parametric gain curve. For demonstration purposes, experiments are performed in the domain that is most inclined to multifrequency emission, i.e., near degeneracy.