Publications

High-efficiency intra-cavity sum-frequency-generation in a self-seeded image-rotating nanosecond optical parametric oscillator

Armstrong, Darrell J.; Smith, A.V.

We have built and tested a highly efficient source of pulsed 320 nm light based on intra-cavity sum-frequency-generation in a self-injection-seeded image-rotating nanosecond optical parametric oscillator. The four-mirror nonplanar ring optical cavity uses the RISTRA geometry, denoting rotated-image singly-resonant twisted rectangle. The cavity contains a type-II xz-cut KTP crystal pumped by the 532 nm second harmonic of Nd:YAG to generate an 803 nm signal and 1576 nm idler, and a type-II BBO crystal to sum-frequency mix the 532 nm pump and cavity-resonant 803 nm signal to generate 320 nm light. The cavity is configured so pump light passes first through the BBO crystal and then through the KTP crystal with the 320 nm light exiting through the output coupler following the BBO sum-frequency crystal. The cavity output coupler is designed to be a high reflector at 532 nm, have high transmission at 320 nm, and reflect approximately 85% at 803 nm. With this configuration we've obtained 1064 nm to 320 nm optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 24% and generated single-frequency λ = 320 nm pulses with energies up to 140 mJ.