30 Watts mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator based on spectral beam combination technology

Abstract

Limited by the thermal effects and the laser-induced damage characteristics of the non-linear crystals, mid-infrared (MIR) output power of single optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is hard to get further promoted with excellent beam quality. An alternative solution is the multiple-beams combination technology, which exactly provided an effective approach for decreasing the thermal effects and the damage risk of the OPO system under high power operation. In this letter, the experimental study on the spectral beam combination of three idler MIR lasers was carried out for the first time. An optical parametric system with MIR output power of 30 W at 3130nm, 3352nm, and 3670nm was finally obtained. Experimental results indicated that the beam quality M2 factors of the combined laser were measured to be ~1.76 and ~2.42 in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, which confirmed the feasibility of the schematic design.