J. Eur. Opt. Society-Rapid Publ. 2026, 22, 4 Ó The Author( s), published by EDP Sciences, 2026 https:// doi. org / 10.1051 / jeos / 2025052 Available online at: https:// jeos. edpsciences. org
Recent advances and trends on lasers and nonlinear materials and sources for near-Infrared Guest editors: Azzedine Boudrioua and Patrice Camy
Journal of the European Optical Society-Rapid Publications
REVIEW ARTICLE
Power scaling of tunable, narrowband, non-resonant PPLN optical parametric oscillators
Weidong Chen 1, 2, Li Wang 1, 3, Subhasis Das 1, 4, Gerhard Spindler 5, Tugba Temel 1, 6, André Schirrmacher 7, Ivan B. Divliansky 8, Marcin Piotrowski 9, Oussama Mhibik 8, Edlef Büttner 10, Chen Cui 1, 11, Robert T. Murray 6, Ge Zhang 2, and Valentin Petrov 1,*
1 |
Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, 2a Max Born Str., 12489 Berlin, Germany |
2 |
State Key Laboratory of Functional Crystals and Devices, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, |
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, 350002 Fujian, PR China |
3 |
Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031 Anhui, PR China |
4 |
Laser Laboratory, Physics Department, Burdwan University, 713104 Burdwan, India |
5 |
Untere Gaisäckerstr. 10, 79761 Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany |
6 |
Blackett Laboratory, Department of Physics, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BW, UK |
7 |
CANLAS GmbH, Schwarzschildstr. 12, 12489 Berlin, Germany |
8 |
CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA |
9 |
French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis, ISL, 5, rue du General Cassagnou, 68301 Saint-Louis, France |
10 |
APE Angewandte Physik & Elektronik GmbH, Plauener Str. 163-165, Haus N, 13053 Berlin, Germany |
11 |
Research Center for Crystal Materials, Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, |
830011 Urumqi, PR China |
Received 30 September 2025 / Accepted 3 December 2025
Abstract. We review our recent achievements with narrowband, nanosecond, non-resonant optical parametric oscillators based on periodically-poled LiNbO 3, which are pumped at 1064 nm and emit close to degeneracy in the near-IR part of the spectrum between 1860 and 2486 nm. The average output power has been scaled up to the 10-W level with tuning across 40 nm( signal) and 66 nm( idler) using transversely chirped volume Bragg gratings( VBGs) acting on the signal wave. The maximum total average output power( signal + idler) achieved with a narrowband VBG has reached 11.35 W at 20 kHz, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 63 %. In this case, the signal and idler bandwidths amount to 0.7 and 0.9 nm at ~ 1922 and ~ 2384 nm, respectively. The experimentally observed spectral narrowing is reproduced by numerical simulations based on a split-step method within the plane-wave approximation taking account pump depletion and back-conversion. Spatial effects are also incorporated in the model, taking into account the transversal intensity distributions, in order to better reproduce the input-output power characteristics.
Keywords: Non-resonant optical parametric oscillator, Periodically-poled lithium niobate, Volume Bragg gratings, Near-infrared parametric light sources.
1 Introduction
Nanosecond optical parametric oscillators( OPOs) represent one of the most efficient approaches for extending the wavelength coverage of existing powerful coherent laser sources operating in the Q-switched mode from the near- to the mid-infrared( mid-IR) part of the spectrum. However, their power scaling capability often suffers from unwanted back-conversion and spectral broadening. The compromised spectral selectivity of the output is a serious drawback not only in direct applications but also when pumping a
* Corresponding author: petrov @ mbi-berlin. de second-stage in a cascade configuration for further frequency down-conversion deeper into the mid-IR beyond 5 lm [ 1 ]. The second stage can be again an OPO pumped by the near-IR signal or idler output of the first stage or alternatively difference frequency generation( DFG) utilizing both of them [ 1 ]. This stage relies on narrow bandgap, low-phonon energy non-oxide nonlinear crystals such as ZnGeP 2, AgGaSe 2, CdSe or orientation patterned GaAs( OPGaAs) which feature extended mid-IR transparency but typically require pump wavelengths above 1.5 lm to avoid two-photon absorption. These crystals exhibit relatively narrow pump spectral acceptance bandwidth [ 1 ]. On the positive side, as a consequence of their narrow
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