Title: Mid-infrared ZnGeP₂ optical parametric oscillator pumped by Tm:YAlO₃ laser

Authors: Lixin Wang; Xiaojuan Zhang; Hong Xu

Addresses: School of Electro-Optical, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China; Science and Technology on Electro-Optical Information Security Control Laboratory, Sanhe 065201, China ' Science and Technology on Electro-Optical Information Security Control Laboratory, Sanhe 065201, China ' Science and Technology on Electro-Optical Information Security Control Laboratory, Sanhe 065201, China

Abstract: We report experimental results on a mid-infrared (mid-IR) ZnGeP₂ optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by a thulium laser. A high efficient Q-switched a-cut Tm:YAlO₃ (Tm:YAP) laser was used to directly drive a ZnGeP₂ OPO to generate 3-5 μm wavelength range. The diode pumped Tm:YAP laser operated on 1.99 μm at 10 kHz repetition rate, and its optical-to-optical conversion efficiency was 22.2%. The laser was run with room temperature components and achieved nearly 2 W average output power at 3-5 μm region with an efficiency of 5.5% starting from the pump diode. The influences of curvature and reflectivity of OPO output mirror on laser output are analysed and validated by experiments, and the results have benefit for the optimisation of such lasers.

Keywords: Tm:YAP lasers; mid-infrared; solid-state lasers; optical parametric oscillators; OPO; ZnGeP2 crystals; zinc germanium phosphide; thulium lasers; optimisation; curvature; reflectivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2015.071791

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2015 Vol.12 No.10/11/12, pp.802 - 810

Published online: 18 Sep 2015 *

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