Widely tunable high power OPO based on a periodically poled MgO doped lithium niobate crystal

An optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a highly MgO doped periodically poled lithium niobate (PPMgLN) crystal was experimentally demonstrated and the result is presented in this report. The PPMgLN wafer was fabricated from a MgO doped (with 6 mol% doping concentration) lithium niobate crystal by means of high voltage pulse trigged domain reversal technique and has 20 domain reversal periods from 27.8 to 31.6μm with a step of 0.2μm between the neighbor periods. An acousto-optic (AO) Q-switched Nd3+:YVO4Nd3+:YVO4 laser was used as the pumping laser. A maximum laser output power of 4.8 W has been achieved for the OPO when the pumping power is 10.8 W and it corresponds to an optic-optic conversion efficiency of 44%. By shifting the PPMgLN wafer, the periods of the domain structure on the PPMgLN wafer can be changed, thus enabling a wide spectral tuning range of the laser output from 1.42 to 1.73μm (for the signal light) and from 2.76 to 4.27μm (for the idler light).