1  W, 10.1  µm, CdSe optical parametric oscillator with continuous-wave seed injection

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Laser Physics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) are crucial for generating tunable laser light.
• Mid-infrared (10-12 µm) laser sources are in demand for various applications.
• Previous OPO technologies have faced limitations in achieving high average power in this spectral region.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a novel OPO system capable of producing watt-level average power at 10.1 µm.
• To investigate the performance of a cadmium selenide (CdSe) based singly resonant OPO.
• To achieve efficient wavelength conversion from a visible nanosecond laser to the mid-infrared.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a 2.1 µm nanosecond laser as the pump source.
• Employed a 2.6 µm continuous-wave (CW) seed injection for the OPO.
• Employed a cadmium selenide (CdSe) crystal as the nonlinear medium in a singly resonant OPO configuration.
• Characterized the output power, pulse energy, conversion efficiency, beam quality, and pulse width.

Main Results:

• Achieved a maximum average output power of 1.05 W at the idler wavelength of 10.1 µm.
• Obtained a pulse energy of 1.05 mJ with a pulse width of 24.4 ns.
• Reported an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 4.69%.
• Measured beam quality parameters of $M_x^2={2.25}$Mx2=2.25 and $M_y^2={2.12}$My2=2.12.

Conclusions:

• This study presents the first demonstration of a watt-level average power 10-12 µm laser source using OPO technology.
• The developed CdSe-based OPO system shows significant potential for mid-infrared applications.
• The results highlight the efficacy of combining nanosecond pumping with CW seeding for high-power OPO generation.