Highefficiency and narrowlinewidth operation of a twocrystal BaB2O4 optical

parametric oscillator
W. R. Bosenberg, W. S. Pelouch, and C. L. Tang

Citation: Applied Physics Letters 55, 1952 (1989); doi: 10.1063/1.102334
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.102334
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and narrowMUnewidth operation of a twoacrystal flaBaB
2
0
4
optical parametric oscmator
w. R. Bosenberg, W. S. Peiouch, and C. L. Tang
Materials Science Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
(Received 26 July 1989; accepted for publication 6 September 1989)
We report a novel, two-crystal, walkoff-compensated optical parametric oscillator design using
(J-BaB
2
0
4
, which significantly improves the performance of the device. The oscillator is
pumped at 354.7 nm and is tunable throughout 0.42-2.3 JIm with overall conversion
efficiencies as high as 32%. We also report on demonstration oflinewidth narrowing in the
same ti'-BaB
2
04 oscillator, obtaining lincwidths as narrow as 0.3 A.
The development of broadly tunable, high-power coher-
ent radiation sources based on the optical parametric oscilla-
tor (OPO) has accelerated recently due to the availability of
excellent new materials such as low-temperature phase bari-
um metaborate (BBO, (J-BaB
2
0
4
).] Its ability to phase
match in the ultraviolet (UV), in addition to having a broad
transmission range, a high UV damage threshold, and a high
nonlinearity, has established BBO as an excellent choice for
parametric conversion in the UV, visible, and near-infrared.
OPOs pumped at 266/ 308,3,4355,5,6 and 532 nm
7
have been
reported to collectively generate continuously tunable radi-
ation from 0.33 to 2.4 p,m, with conversion efficiencies rang-
ing from a few percent to 24%, Without question, the BBO
OPO has established itself as an excellent source of broadly
tunable, pulsed radiation.
BllO has a relatively large birefringence
(no - ne = 0.128 for A = 355 nm) which enables phase
matching very close to its UV cutoff at 190 nm. However, in
the critically ptase-matched BBO OPO, it also leads to a
large walk-off angle which limits conversion efficiency by
reducing the effective interaction length.
8
Here, we present a
new OPO design which uses two nonlinear optical crystals in
a linear cavity in a manner that allows each crystal to com-
pensate for the walkoff of the other, achieving a substantial
improvement in conversion efficiency. We also report the
first demonstration of linewidth narrowing in a BBO OPO
using a grating, thereby obtaining linewidths only a sman
fraction of the gain bandwidth.
The two-crystal OPO configuration is shown in Fig.
1 (a). With the exception of the additional BEO crystal, the
cavity arrangement is the same as that described in detail in
Ref. 2. The pump steering mirrors (PM! & PM2) are stan-
dard 355 nrn high reflectors (R > 98 % ). The cavity mirror
M I is a standard, low-damage threshold, broadband, dielec-
tric high reflector (R > 90% over 480-700 nm), and mirror
M2 is a -,50% output coupIer. All mirrors transmit over
90% of the infrared idler waves ensuring singly resonant
operation. The cavity length is 55 mm allowing for - 17
round trips of the resonated wave.
The two BBO crystals used were grown in our laborato-
ry using the top seeded solution growth technique:} Crystal
BBOI has an aperture of lOX 10 mm
2
with an interaction
length of 11.5 mm and is cut for type I phase matching with
an angle of 30.2" between the entrance face nomlal and the
optic axis (C). Crystal BE02 is lOX rum long
and is cut at 29.3'. The two crystals are placed 011 separate
rotation mounts and each set to the phase matching angle
(0) corresponding to the desired output wavelength. As the
closeup side view in Fig. 1 (b) shows, the crystals are ar-
ranged with their respective optic axes at an angle of twice ()
relative to one another. In this configuration, the extraordin-
ary pump beam (gray) walks off the ordinary signal and
idler beams (black) in the flrst crystal and then walks on
them in the second crystaL Tuning of the device is easily
performed by rotating the two crystals about the tuning axes
of TAl and TA2 in opposite directions to maintain phase
matching.
The pump source is the third harmonic of a commercial-
ly available, Q-switched neodymium-doped yttrium a!umi-
num garnet (Nd:YAG) laser systems identical to that de-
scribed in Ref. 5.
The conversion efficiency of the device (1J) was deter-
mined by measuring the ratio of the total OPO output power
passing through mirrors M 1 and M 2 to the pump power (P)
(Ill
'TAIC)
FJ:G, I. (a) Top view of the walkoff-compcnsated, two-crystal 01:'0 cavIty
design, E301 and BB02 = .a-naB10. crystals; PMl and PM2 = 355 nm
high reflector, pump steering mirrors; M I broadband, visible, high re-
flector; M 2 = 50% visible output coupler; TA i and T A2 = crystal tuning
axes; So,S"S, = Poynting vectors of pump, signal, and idler fields, respec-
tively, The pump beam (grey) is polarized out of page; the signal and idler
heams (black) are polarized in the plane of the page and are at Brewster's
angle (e B) relative to I'M! and PM2, (b) Close-up side view of the ar-
rangement of BBO 1 and BB02. The crystals are placed so their optic axes
(C) make an angle twice the phase matching angle ((;I) with respect to one
anotheL The extraordinary pump heam walk offill the first crystal is com-
pensated for hy propagation through the second crystal where it walks on to
the two ordinary beams, Tuning is accomplished by rotating the crystals in
opposite directions about their respective tuning axes,
1952 Appl. Phys, Lett 55 (19), 6 November 1989 0003-6951189/45195203$01,00 @ 1989 American Institute of PhysiCS 1952
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incident on pump steering mirror PMl. The efficiency
quoted is thus the total experimentally usable power con-
verted from pump to signal and idler wavelengths. The oscil-
lation threshold pump power (P ," ) for the device was mea-
sured by reducing the pump power until only occasional
OPO flashes were observed. Figure 2(b} shows data ob-
tained with a high quality, centra! Airy disk, I-mm-diam
pump beam (6.), as well as data obtained with a larger, 1.5
mm beam of somewhat poorer spatial quality (0) for the
signal and idler wavelengths of 0.505 ,urn and 1.2,um, respec-
tively. Both sets of data saturate at 32%. The oscillation
threshold is 1.7 mJ/pulse (27 MW /cm
2
) for the 1 mm beam
and 5.0 mJ/pulse (-37 MW/cm2) for the 1.5 mm beam.
With the larger beam as much as 7 mJ/pulse of OPO output
was observed (with 21 m] /pulse of pump). The solid line in
the figure is the theoretical conversion efficiency for a singly
resonant oscillator obtained by integrating plane wave solu-
tions over a Gaussian intensity profile, lO with two modifica-
tions. First, for pulsed OPO operation, a temporal integral
must be performed yielding a factor of (1 - P th / P).
8
Sec-
ond, a scale factor must be used to account for the reflection
losses of the uncoated crystals and the intracavity pump
steering mirrors. For our cavity, we estimate this factor to be
so roughly 1/3 of the parametrically generated light
is lost to intracavity reflections, which implies that the inter-
nal conversion efficiency of the device is - 50%. The agree-
ment between the theoretical curve and the experimental
data is quite good for both pump beams; the poorer spatial
5.0
o
(a) .
o
o
1.0 - - - --- -e -o-<UL.-
o
- -----
0.0
6Q
o
/
I
I 6
/
/
(b)
3 4 5 6
PIP",
FIG. 2. Ca) Ratio of the standard deviation ufthe fluctuation of the OPO
pulse energies ()"oPo ) to the fluctuation of the pump pulse energies (O";mmp)
vs pumping. The dashed Hne denotes the point where the fluctuation of the
OPO output is equal to that of the pump. (b) Total, experimentally usable,
OPO conversion efficiency vs pumping for the signal and idler wavelengths
of505 nrn and 1.2,um.respectively. (.6) data. taken with a I-mm-diam. high
spatial quality pump beam. (0) data taken with a 1.5-mm-diam, poorer
spatial quality pump beam. Both curves saturate at - 32%. The solid curve
is the theoretical conversion efficiency curve adapted to the experimental
cavity (without antirellection-coated crystals). The dashed curve repre-
sents an estimate of the improvement in experimentally usable efficiency
available from a device with antireflection-coated BIlO crystals.
1953 Appl. Phys. lett., Vol. 55, No. 19,6 November 1989
quality of the larger beam manifests itself in the form of a
higher threshold intensity. The dashed curve in Fig. 2(b)
represents an estimate of the experimentally usable conver-
sion efficiency of a device with the lower intracavity losses
obtained by using antireflection-coated RHO crystals. With
careful optimization of intracavity coatings, 50% of the
input pump could be converted into useful output. Although
the efficiency data are for a particular signal and idler pair,
angle tuning of the device is very straightforward. A single
set of mirrors and a single pair of crystals allow continuous
tuning over the range 0.42-2.3 f-lm with better than 24%
conversion efficiency throughout. At idler wavelengths
longer than 2.3 pm the loss due to the onset of absorption
in the BEO crystals and the fused silica pump mirror sub-
strates dramaticaliy increases the oscillation threshold and
limits the efficiency.
To verify that the two-crystal design is a key to the im-
proved conversion efficiency, we directly compared our two-
crystal, walk off-compensated design to two other configura-
tions using identical crystals and mirrors under identical
pump conditions. A conventional one-crystal design and a
two-<;rlstal design with the two optic axes parallel were con-
sidered. Table I gives a summary of these results. The
walkoff-compensated scheme clearly demonstrates lower
thresholds and higher maximum efficiencies. The maximum
efficiency values shown are saturated ones, so that even
without the limited power of our pump source, much higher
conversion efficiency is still not possible. The value of the
saturated maximum efficiency in our one-crystal OPO
agrees well with results of Ref. 4 which used a much higher
quality, injection-seeded Nd:Y AG laser pump source. These
results suggest that for the BED OPO, the walkoff-compen-
sated, two-crystal design is more efficient than the one-crys-
tal design, independent of the quality of the pump source.
The pulse-to-pulse fluctuation of the GPO output was
determined using a fast photodiode (rise time < 200 ps) to
measure the energies of individual pulses. The variation of
the GPO pulse energies was compared to that of the pump
pulse energies. These results are shown in Fig. 2(a)< In the
saturated regime (17 > 25%), the standard deviation ofOPO
pulse energies (0"01'0 = -6% of the mean pulse energy) is
about equal to that of the pump pulse energies
(a
pump
= while in unsaturated operation
(rJ < 25%), the OPO fluctuations are considerably larger
TABLE I. Comparison of severa! crystal configuratiolls in Ii BBO OPO.
1.0-mm-diam beam 1.5-mm-diarn beam
Max. Max.
Crystal Threshold efficiency Threshold efficiency
configuration (mJ/pulse) (%) (mJ/pu!se) (%)
Two crystals
walkoff compensated 1.7 32 5.0 33
Two crystals
not walkoff 4.1 20 6.0 22
compensated
One crystal 3.5 21 9.5 18
Bosenberg, Pelouch, and Tang '1953
---, '-o> -.-.-.- ..0;.; ;.;0-............... .
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On: Thu, 02 Jan 2014 15:32:49
than those of the pump with O'OPO as high as 25% of the
mean. Hence, operation of this device in the saturated re-
gime is essential to achieving maximum pulse-to-pulse sta-
bility.
For many applications the linewidth of the OPO is an
important parameter. We measured the linewidth of the
two-crystal OPO output with a 0.5 m monochromator
whose wavelength resolution was -0.3 A. The dashed line
in Fig. 3, calculated using published SeIlmeier coefficients, II
is in good agreement with our experimental data Ct.). These
show the dramatic increase in the OPO linewidth as the de-
vice is tuned toward the degenerate point, a trend which is
typical of aU Type I OPOS.
8
The linewidth measurements are
full width at half maximum values, and the observed
Iinewidths vary from 1.5 A far from degeneracy to over 100
A at degeneracy. Clearly, for applications requiring narrow
Iinewidth sources some externallinewidth control is neces-
sary.
Although a number of linewidth narrowing techniques
exist, we chose to use the simplest: replacing the cavity mir-
ror M 1 [see Fig. I (a) 1 with a grating. The grating (Milton-
Roy No. 35-53-290) has 1800 grooves/mm, a blaze angle of
26.7, and is positioned with the grooves perpendicular to the
polarization of the signal wave for improved broadband dif-
fraction efficiency.
The results of three experimental grating schemes are
shown in Table II. The most efficient cavity involves placing
the grating in the first-order Littrow configuration. The sol-
id line drawn through the data in Fig. 3 shows that for signal
wavelengths whose unnarrowed gain bandwidth is < 3 A
(A < 500 nm), the OPO gain controls the linewidth, while
for' signal wavelengths whose gain bandwidth is > 3 A
(A.
s
> 500 um), the grati.ng clamps the linewidth at 3 A. Due
to the high grating efficiency in the Littrow configuration,
the line-narrowed OPO conversion efficiency is as high as
25%. Hence, the device can be operated throughout its tun-
ing range with linewidths of 1.5-3.0 A without sacrificing
30
'0 10
400 450
,-
./
/
/
/
A
/
I
Ie.
/
/.0.
I
I
I
I
I
}
1.0.
I
o
o e
500 550 600
OPO Signal Wavelenglh (nm)
650 700
FIG. 3. 01'0 linewidth vs signal wavelength. (.6.) the measured OPO
lillewidth without a grating. The dashed line represents calculated
linewidth values using published Sellmeicr coefficients. (0) the measured
linewidth with the grating in the first-order Littrow configuration. For
wa vdengths < 500 nm the 0 PO gain controls the linewidth, w hi!e for wa ve-
lengths> 500 nm the grating controls the Iinewidth. A solid line is drawn
through the data to highlight the elfect of the grating.
1954 Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 55, No. 19,6 November 1989
TABLE H. Comparison of the linewidths and efficiencies of various grating
configurations.
OPOsignal Maximum
Grating lincwidth Threshold efficiency
configuration tA) (mJ/pulse) (%)
No grating 1.5-100 2.0 33
Uttrow (first order) 1.5-3.0 3.0 25
LiUrow (second order) 1.2-2.5 4.0 18
Littman 0.3 5.5 9
much output power. The second-order Littrow configura-
tion yields linewidths only slightly narrower than the first-
order configuration with a noticeable increase in oscillator
threshold due to the decreasing grating efficiency. Finally,
using the grating in a grazing-incidence or Littman configu-
ration
l2
(angle of incidence - 87) and a high reflecting alu-
minized mirror as the cavity mirror, linewidths of 0.3 A were
measured with a scanning Fabry-Perot etaloll. Due to the
poor efficiency of the grating at grazing incidence ( ~ 6
per pass) , the oscillator threshold is nearly double that of the
first-order Littrow scheme, and hence, the conversion effi-
ciency of the OPO is significantly lower. The improvement
in linewidth, however, makes the Littman design a good op-
tion for lower efficiency, high-resolution applications. Thus,
we have shown that a single grating can be used to achieve
narrow linewidths in a BBO OPO. Further improvements
include using beam expansion optics, intracavity etalons,
and resonant reflectors. These techniques have been dis-
cussed at length elsewhere.
s
In conclusion, we have demonstrated a new two-crystal,
walkoff-compensated OPO design which significantly im-
proves the conversion efficiency of a BBO OPO. It should be
noted that this crystal configuration can be used for any oth-
er critically phase-matched frequency conversion process to
obtain similar improvements in performance. We have also
successfully demonstrated line width narrowing with this
two-crystal design using various, simple grating schemes.
This work has been supported by the Naval Research
Laboratory and the National Science Foundation.
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