MICROJOULE ULTRAFAST OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATOR: BRIDGING THE TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL GAP BETWEEN OSCILLATORS AND AMPLIFIERS

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High-energy ultrafast infrared (1.5 - 4.0um) laser sources are needed for optical waveguide writing; free-space spectroscopy for environmental monitoring / explosives detection; 3D ranging; multiphoton imaging; and nonlinear spectroscopy. Commercial systems are either low-energy, high-repetition-rate optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) or high-energy, low-repetition-rate optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs). A market exists for sources that can bridge the wide technology gap between these extremes, providing sufficient energy to drive nonlinear processes, but delivering pulses at the high repetition rates that improve processing speed, signal:noise, waveguide quality etc. Building on a patent-pending energy-scaling concept demonstrated in EPSRC project EP/E016863/1 (ending March 2010) we aim to demonstrate a 1000-fold increase in pulse energy over existing commercial ultrafast OPOs, providing a disruptive and commercially attractive solution filling the existing technology gap.