Continuous-wave LiB3O5 optical parametric oscillator pumped by a tunable Ti:sapphire laser

We have demonstrated a continuous-wave optical parametric oscillator that uses lithium triborate as the nonlinear material and a tunable Ti:sapphire laser as the pump source. By exploiting type I noncritical phase matching and a combination of temperature and pump frequency tuning, we have generated widely tunable radiation from 1.49 to 1.70 μm, limited by the bandwidth of the optical coatings. Total output powers of 30 mW and pump depletions of 40% have been obtained at two times the oscillation threshold of 360 mW. We discuss the application of this nonlinear frequency conversion process to several recently proposed experiments.