Harmonically pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator with multi-gigahertz repetition rate

We report a multi-gigahertz (GHz) repetition-rate femtosecond MgO: PPLN optical parametric oscillator (OPO) harmonically pumped by a 75.6 MHz Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb: KGW laser. By fractionally increasing the OPO cavity length, we obtained OPO operation up to the 493rd harmonic of the pump laser repetition rate, corresponding to a repetition rate as high as 37.3 GHz. Using a 1.5% output coupler, we are able to extract signal pulses with up to 260 mW average power at the 102nd harmonic (7.7 GHz) and 90 mW at the 493rd harmonic (37.3 GHz) under 2 W pump power. The measured relative standard deviations of the fundamental and the 102nd harmonic signal power were recorded to be 0.5% and 2.1%, respectively. The signal pulse durations at different harmonics were measured in the range of 160-230 fs. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America