G.W. Ross

A parametric oscillator directly pumped by a 1.55 micron erbium fibre laser

We report what is believed to be the first demonstration of an optical parametric oscillator directly pumped by the 1.55-mum output of an erbium-doped fiber laser. The oscillator, based on periodically poled lithium niobate, produced 8-muJ idler output near 3.8 mum at a 500-Hz repetition rate when it was pumped with 100-muJ 60-ns pulses at 1.55 mum . Temperature tuning of the 50-mm-long PPLN crystal gave signal and idler ranges of 2.55 to 2.7 mum and 3.65 to 3.96 mum , respectively, limited by mirror reflectivity. A signal-tuning range of 40 nm was observed for 13.5 nm of pump tuning with a fixed grating period and temperature. The optical parameter oscillator could be operated at low temperature with no sign of photorefractive damage.

Femtosecond fiber-feedback OPO

We demonstrate the first synchronously pumped high-gain optical parametric oscillator with feedback through a single-mode fiber. We obtained 2.7W in 900fs pulses at 1.45µm. An active cavity length stabilization is not required.

3.25-mW blue light by direct frequency-doubling of a 980-nm diode laser using an aperiodically poled LiNbO/sub 3/ crystal

Summary form only given.There is considerable interest in compact lasers that operate in the blue spectral region. Through the use of an aperiodic crystal and a pulsed diode laser we have demonstrated a compact 3.25-mW blue laser source. The experimental scheme for the frequency doubling of the diode laser is illustrated. For a cw power of 108 mW, the maximum SH output power from the periodically poled LiNbO/sub 3/ (PPLN) was 150 /spl mu/W.

observation of quadratic spatial solitons

In the last years, second order nonlinear effects have attracted a great deal of interest in the scientific community; in particular solitons sustained by second order nonlinearity have been extensively studied after the first experimental demonstration of soliton propagation in a KTP crystal [1].