Rüdiger Paschotta

Femtosecond optical parametric generation (OPG) in periodically poled stoichiometric LiTaO/sub 3/ with >1 W average power

Summary form only given. We present a parametric generator based on the novel nonlinear material periodically poled stoichiometric LiTaO/sub 3/ (PPSLT) and a recently developed high-power femtosecond Yb:KY(WO/sub 4/)/sub 2/ (Yb:KYW) thin-disk laser. We achieved simple and robust single-pass OPG at the full repetition rate of 24 MHz. We obtained stable 1 W signal power in 320 fs-pulses with a good transverse beam quality (M/sup 2/ = 1.1) at 1.45 /spl mu/m and 0.6 W of idler power at 3.55 /spl mu/m for 7.8 W pump power. For a few minutes, even 2.5 W of signal output power have been achieved. The damage resistance of PPSLT seems to be significantly better than for congruent PPLN.

High-power femtosecond nonlinear devices pumped with a mode-locked thin disk laser

We report on experiments with high-power femtosecond pulses from a passively mode-locked thin disk Yb:YAG laser: nonlinear fiber compression to 33 fs with 18 W average power and a fiber-feedback parametric oscillator generating 15 W in the 1.5-/spl mu/m region.

Passively Mode-Locked Surface-Emitting Semiconductor Lasers with High Repetition Rates of up to 30 GHz

We present high-repetition-rate passively mode-locked vertical external-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor lasers with average output powers of 1.4 W in 6.1-ps pulses at 10 GHz and 25 mW in 4.7-ps pulses at 30 GHz.

Femtosecond and picosecond fiber-feedback OPOs

Summary form only given. Synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) are attractive sources of broadly wavelength-tunable ultrashort pulses as required for many applications, e.g. RGB display systems. We present a novel type of synchronously pumped OPO, which is based on feedback through a single-mode fiber in combination with a very high parametric gain and strong output coupling. This concept leads to compact, stable and powerful systems in the femtosecond and picosecond regime. We present a picosecond fiber-feedback OPO generating up to 4.4 W of average signal power in /spl ap/10-ps pulses tunable from 1485-1582 nm. We also demonstrate a femtosecond fiber-feedback OPO that generates up to 2.7 W average signal power tunable from 1429-1473 nm in 700-900 fs pulses. In contrast to many other OPOs in this pulse duration regime, this system is very insensitive against drifts of the OPO cavity length and does not require an active stabilization. Because of the high parametric gain, fiber-feedback OPOs are also unusually insensitive against intracavity losses. Even at low repetition rates, the setup is very compact since most of the resonator feedback path consists of the fiber.