High-efficiency mid-infrared optical parametric amplifier with approximate uniform rectangular pump distribution

• Main Authors: Wei, Xingbin, Peng, Yuefeng, Luo, Xingwang, Zhou, Tangjian, Peng, Jue, Nie, Zan, Gao, Jianrong
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: SPIE 05.10.2017
• ISBN: 1510613366; 9781510613362
• ISSN: 0277-786X
• DOI: 10.1117/12.2276963

We present a high-efficiency mid-infrared optical parametric amplifier (OPA) pumped by a Nd:YAG slab laser with rectangular beam distribution. To improve the conversion efficiency of OPA, we used an approximate uniform pump beam, which helped most of the pump area maintain the optimal intensity to reduce the back conversion effect. The uniform pump distribution without any peak intensity also reduced the damage chances of the nonlinear crystal of PPMgOLN and increased its pump power capability in power-scaling operations. To make sufficient usage of the narrow and small interface of PPMgOLN, we chose a rectangular pump shape whose size was adjusted to match the maximum effective interface of PPMgOLN. The idler laser of 3.82 μm from an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) was powerscaled in the following OPA system. We used two 1.064 μm lasers to pump the OPO and OPA separately. The pulsewidth adjustment and pulse synchronization of the 1 μm pump laser and 3.82 μm seed laser were realized by changing the parameters of the two acoustic-optical Q-switches in the two pump lasers. With the input pump power of 293.4 W, the amplified 3.82 μm laser power was 40.3 W deducting the injected seed laser power of 2.9 W from OPO. The corresponding conversion efficiency from the pump to the idler was 13.7% for the PPMgOLN OPA.