Compact efficient eye-safe intracavity optical parametric oscillator with a shared cavity configuration

Abstract

We present a compact efficient eye-safe intracavity optical parametric oscillator pumped by a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser in a shared cavity configuration. A signal pulse of 3.3 mJ energy at a 1573 nm wavelength with a peak power of 150 kW was achieved. The effective conversion efficiency with respective to the optimized 1064 nm Q-switched pulse energy was as high as 51%. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.