Femtosecond optical parametric oscillators based on potassium titanyl phosphate crystals

Abstract

In this thesis, we describe our experiments to construct and characterize optical parametric oscillators (OPO) based on a potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) crystals. The oscillator is synchronously pumped by a mode-locked Titanium:Sapphire laser at a wavelength of 745 nm, a pulse duration of 120 fs, and average power of 640 mW. The OPO converts the 745 nm pump beam to a signal beam at 1068 nm. The resonator is in the form of a ring cavity, with the KTP crystal positioned at the intracavity focus. The crystal is cut for type-II phase matching. We investigated the performance of the OPO with four different output coupler reflectivities. The 10% output coupler gives the best results with 170 mW of signal average power, corresponding to 27% conversion efficiency. The signal beam has an autocorrelation pulse width of 650 fs. In addition, we demonstrate phase-matched intracavity frequency doubling of the signal beam with the same KTP crystal, by placing a waveplate inside the resonator. The waveplate is used to rotate the polarization for type-II phase matching.