Subnanosecond, 1 kHz, temperature-tuned, noncritical mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator based on CdSiP(2) crystal pumped at 1064 nm.

Operation of an optical parametric oscillator based on CdSiP(2) and pumped at 1064 nm is demonstrated at a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The maximum output idler energy of 24 microJ at 6.125 microm corresponds to an average power of 24 mW. Increasing the crystal temperature up to 150 degrees in the noncritical (90 degrees) configuration leads to idler wavelength tuning from 6.117 to 6.554 microm. Subnanosecond pulse durations are obtained for the signal and idler as a result of the 1 ns pulse duration of the pump, made possible by the rather short crystal and cavity lengths (approximately 1 cm).

Noncritical singly resonant optical parametric oscillator operation near 6.2 microm based on a CdSiP(2) crystal pumped at 1064 nm.

CdSiP(2) is employed in a nanosecond, 90 degrees -phase-matched, singly resonant optical parametric oscillator pumped at 1064 nm to produce idler pulses near 6.2 microm with an energy as high as 470 microJ at 10 Hz.

Mid-infrared ZnGeP2 parametric oscillator directly pumped by a pulsed 2 microm Tm-doped fiber laser.

We have demonstrated what we believe to be the first mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped directly by a pulsed Tm-doped fiber laser. The Tm-fiber pump laser produces 30 ns pulses with a repetition rate of 30 kHz at a wavelength of 2 microm. The ZnGeP2 (ZGP) OPO produces 20 ns mid-IR pulses in the 3.4-3.9 microm and 4.1-4.7 microm spectral regions simultaneously. More than 658 mW of mid-IR output power has been generated with a total OPO slope efficiency greater than 35%.

Efficient 1645-nm Er:YAG laser.

We report a resonantly fiber-laser-pumped Er:YAG laser operating at the eye-safe wavelength of 1645 nm, exhibiting 43% optical efficiency and 54% incident slope efficiency and emitting 7-W average power when repetitively Q switched at 10 kHz. To our knowledge, this is the best performance (conversion efficiency and average power) obtained from a bulk solid-state Q-switched erbium laser. At a 1.1-kHz pulse repetition frequency the laser produces 3.4-mJ pulses with a corresponding peak power of 162 kW. Frequency doubling to produce 822.5-nm, 4.7-kW pulses at 10 kHz was performed to demonstrate the laser's utility.

5-W repetitively Q-switched Er:LuAG laser resonantly pumped by an erbium fiber laser.

We report a high-average-power, near-diffraction-limited Er:LuAG laser generating 5 W of power at 1.648 microm in either cw or repetitively Q-switched operation. When the laser is Q switched at 9 kHz, we measure 0.52 mJ/pulse. The laser is end pumped by a 20-W erbium fiber laser and achieves >30% optical conversion efficiency and >40% incident slope efficiency. This is, to our knowledge, the highest performance (average power and conversion efficiency) obtained from a bulk solid-state erbium laser.