High-power, narrow-bandwidth mid-infrared PPMgLN optical parametric oscillator with a volume Bragg grating

We report on a high-power, narrow spectral bandwidth 2.907 µm PPMgLN optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by a 1.064 µm pulsed Nd:YAG MOPA laser source. Free-running operation of the OPO exhibits maximum average output power of 71.6 W at 2.907 µm with a slope efficiency of 26.7%. Broad 2.907 μm spectral bandwidth of the free-running OPO was suppressed from ~9 nm to less than 0.7 nm by using a VBG as one cavity mirror. The maximum average power was 51.7 W at 2907.55 nm for the spectrum-narrowed OPO, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 22.5%. Continuously tunable ranges of ~8 nm around 2.907 µm had been achieved via adjusting the temperatures of the VBG and PPMgLN accordingly.