Open AccessEffect of idler absorption in pulsed optical parametric oscillators
Author(s) -
Gunnar Rustad,
Gunnar Arisholm,
Øystein Farsund
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.19.002815
Subject(s) - opos , optics , optical parametric oscillator , absorption (acoustics) , nanosecond , beam (structure) , nonlinear optics , wavelength , materials science , laser , physics , optoelectronics
Absorption at the idler wavelength in an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is often considered detrimental. We show through simulations that pulsed OPOs with significant idler absorption can perform better than OPOs with low idler absorption both in terms of conversion efficiency and beam quality. The main reason for this is reduced back conversion. We also show how the beam quality depends on the beam width and pump pulse length, and present scaling relations to use the example simulations for other pulsed nanosecond OPOs.