Characteristics of optical parametric oscillators synchronously pumped by second harmonic of femtosecond Yb:KGW laser

We present experimental data and numerical simulation results obtained during investigation of synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (SPOPOs) pumped by second harmonic (515 nm) of femtosecond Yb:KGW laser. We used two different nonlinear media for parametric generation - lithium triborate (LBO) and beta barium borate (BBO) in slightly different experimental setups. Maximum parametric light conversion efficiency from pump power to signal power was more than 25% whereas the largest achieved signal wave tuning ranges were from 670 nm to 1030 nm for BBO SPOPO and from 780 nm to 940 nm for LBO SPOPO. We also used intracavity group delay dispersion (GDD) compensation to achieve shorter signal pulses and investigated changes of various SPOPO output characteristics when changing net cavity GDD.