Efficient intracavity generation of visible pulses in a femtosecond near-infrared optical parametric oscillator

We have achieved efficient simultaneous intracavity doubling of the signal frequency and sum-frequency generation between the signal and the pump in a periodically poled LiNbO3 femtosecond optical parametric oscillator pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser. The responsible mechanisms are second-, third-, and fourth- order quasi-phase matching (QPM). An similar to 56% poling duty cycle permits efficient even-order QPM. Femtosecond pulses tunable in the visible were generated with a total efficiency of more than 8% for only 480-mW pump power at 80 MHz. Optimization of the poling duty cycle can improve the efficiency further. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America