Continuous-wave intra-cavity singly resonant optical parametric oscillator with resonant wave output coupling

We report herein the enhancement in both power and efficiency performance of a continuous-wave intra-cavity singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (ICSRO) by introducing finite resonant wave output coupling. While coupling out the resonant wave to useful output, the output coupling increases the SRO threshold properly thus suppresses the back-conversion under high pump power. Therefore, the down-conversion efficiency is maintained under high pump without having to raise the threshold by defocusing. With a T = 9.6% signal wave output coupler used, the SRO threshold is 2.46 W and the down-conversion efficiency is 72.9% under the maximum pump power of 21.4 W. 1.43 W idler power at 3.66 mu m and 5.03 W signal power at 1.5 mu m are obtained, corresponding to a total extraction efficiency of 30.2%. The resonant wave out coupling significantly levels up the upper limit for the power range where the ICSRO exhibits high efficiency, without impeding its advantage of low threshold. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America