Compact Intracavity Singly-Resonant Optical Parametric Oscillator Pumped by GaSb-Based Vertical External Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser: Concept and the Main Operational Characteristics

The concept of an intracavity singly-resonant optical parametric oscillator pumped by a GaSb-based vertical external cavity surface-emitting laser has been proposed. The steady-state characteristics of the parametric oscillator with the joint cavity shared by the pump and signal optical fields have been numerically analyzed. Using a few millimeter long orientation-patterned quasi-phase-matched GaAs nonlinear crystal in such a cavity allows fairly compact ( ~15-mm long) device working in the mid-infrared range (wavelength of 16.5 μm) to be built.