Sandia Corporation

Caci, Inc. - Federal

Arlee Virgil Smith

Darrell J Armstrong

William J Alford

Andrew John Stentz

Mark S Bowers

Jesse Joel Smith

Disclosed here are methods, devices, and systems for generating an output light beam for a pulsed laser. An example method may comprise generating one or more pump optical beams comprising at least two photons having a pump wavelength. A first nonlinear stage may convert the at least two photons to a first photon having a first wavelength that is half of the pump wavelength. The first optical beam may be caused to spatially overlap with a seed optical beam. At least two second nonlinear stages separated by a gap may be used to convert, based on the seed optical beam, the first photon to a second photon having a second wavelength and a third photon having a target wavelength greater than the pump wavelength. A third nonlinear stage may convert the second photon to a fourth photon and a fifth photon each having the target wavelength or having a wavelength within an offset range of the target wavelength.

Multi-stage nonlinear process for efficient wavelength conversion

A wavelength-doubling optical parametric oscillator (OPO) comprising a type II nonlinear optical medium for generating a pair of degenerate waves at twice a pump wavelength and a plurality of mirrors for rotating the polarization of one wave by 90 degrees to produce a wavelength-doubled beam with an increased output energy by coupling both of the degenerate waves out of the OPO cavity through the same output coupler following polarization rotation of one of the degenerate waves.

Wavelength-doubling optical parametric oscillator

An optical parametric oscillator apparatus utilizing self-seeding with an external nanosecond-duration pump source to generate a seed pulse resulting in increased conversion efficiency. An optical parametric oscillator with a ring configuration are combined with a pump that injection seeds the optical parametric oscillator with a nanosecond duration, mJ pulse in the reverse direction as the main pulse. A retroreflecting means outside the cavity injects the seed pulse back into the cavity in the direction of the main pulse to seed the main pulse, resulting in higher conversion efficiency.

Self-seeding ring optical parametric oscillator

A device for optical parametric amplification utilizing four mirrors oriented in a nonplanar configuration where the optical plane formed by two of the mirrors is orthogonal to the optical plane formed by the other two mirrors and with the ratio of lengths of the laser beam paths approximately constant regardless of the scale of the device. With a cavity length of less than approximately 110 mm, a conversion efficiency of greater than 45% can be achieved.

Image-rotating, 4-mirror, ring optical parametric oscillator

A method to improving optical parametric oscillator (OPO) beam quality having an optical pump, which generates a pump beam at a pump frequency greater than a desired signal frequency, a nonlinear optical medium oriented so that a signal wave at the desired signal frequency and a corresponding idler wave are produced when the pump beam (wave) propagates through the nonlinear optical medium, resulting in beam walk off of the signal and idler waves, and an optical cavity which directs the signal wave to repeatedly pass through the nonlinear optical medium, said optical cavity comprising an equivalently even number of non-planar mirrors that produce image rotation on each pass through the nonlinear optical medium. Utilizing beam walk off where the signal wave and said idler wave have nonparallel Poynting vectors in the nonlinear medium and image rotation, a correlation zone of distance equal to approximately &rgr;L is created which, through multiple passes through the nonlinear medium, improves the beam quality of the OPO output.

Method to improve optical parametric oscillator beam quality

An optical parametric oscillator (OPO) having an optical pump, which generates a pump beam at a pump frequency greater than a desired signal frequency, a nonlinear optical medium oriented so that a signal wave at the desired signal frequency and a corresponding idler wave are produced when the pump beam (wave) propagates through the nonlinear optical medium, resulting in beam walk off of the signal and idler waves, and an optical cavity which directs the signal wave to repeatedly pass through the nonlinear optical medium, said optical cavity comprising an equivalently even number of non-planar mirrors that produce image rotation on each pass through the nonlinear optical medium. Utilizing beam walk off where the signal wave and said idler wave have nonparallel Poynting vectors in the nonlinear medium and image rotation, a correlation zone of distance equal to approximately &rgr;L is created which, through multiple passes through the nonlinear medium, improves the beam quality of the OPO output.

Optical parametric osicllators with improved beam quality

A more efficient class of optical parametric oscillators is made possible by introducing means for reducing signal losses due to backconversion of signal photons in the nonlinear optical medium.

Growing community of inventors

Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Arlee Virgil Smith