High-power, variable repetition rate, picosecond optical parametric oscillator pumped by an amplified gain-switched diode.

We demonstrate a picosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) that is synchronously pumped by a fiber-amplified gain-switched laser diode. At 24W of pump power, up to 7.3W at 1.54microm and 3.1W at 3.4microm is obtained in separate output beams. The periodically poled MgO-doped LiNbO(3) OPO operates with ~17ps pulses at a fundamental repetition rate of 114.8MHz but can be switched to higher repetition rates up to ~1GHz. Tunabilty between 1.4microm and 1.7microm (signal) and 2.9microm and 4.4microm (idler) is demonstrated by translating the nonlinear crystal to access different poling-period gratings and typical M(2) values of 1.1 by 1.2 (signal) and 1.6 by 3.2 (idler) are measured at high power for the singly resonant oscillator.