3128 OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 31, No.

21 / November 1, 2006

BiB3O6 femtosecond optical parametric oscillator

M. Ghotbi, A. Esteban-Martin, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh
ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Parc Mediterrani de la Tecnologia, 08860 Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain
Received July 19, 2006; accepted August 8, 2006;
posted August 21, 2006 (Doc. ID 73145); published October 11, 2006
We report a femtosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on the nonlinear material BiB3O6. The
OPO is synchronously pumped in the blue by the second harmonic of a Kerr-lens-mode-locked Ti:sapphire
laser. It can provide wide and continuous tuning across the entire green–yellow–orange–red spectral range
with a single crystal and a single set of mirrors. Using a 500 ␮m BiB3O6 crystal and collinear type I 共e + e
→ o兲 phase matching in the optical yz plane, a signal wavelength range of 480– 710 nm is demonstrated
with angle tuning at room temperature at average output powers of 270 mW. With 220 fs blue pump pulses,
near-transform-limited signal pulses of 120 fs duration have been obtained at 76 MHz repetition rate.
© 2006 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 190.4970, 190.4360, 190.7110, 190.4400.

Optical sources capable of providing high-repetition- Here we describe a synchronously pumped OPO
rate femtosecond pulses in the visible spectrum are of that can provide femtosecond pulses with wide and
interest for a wide range of applications in time- continuous tunability across the entire red–orange–
domain spectroscopy, optical microscopy, frequency yellow–green 共480– 710 nm兲 spectral range using a
metrology, and quantum optics. A particularly diffi- single nonlinear crystal and a single set of mirrors.
cult spectral range is 500– 700 nm in the visible spec- The OPO, pumped in the blue pulse by the second
trum, which remains inaccessible to the Kerr-lens- harmonic of a KLM Ti:sapphire laser, exploits the
mode-locked (KLM) Ti:sapphire laser or its newly developed nonlinear material, bismuth tribo-
frequency-doubled output. rate (BiB3O6 or BIBO), both as the doubling crystal
Synchronously pumped optical parametric oscilla- for the Ti:sapphire pump and as the nonlinear gain
tors (OPOs) offer a practical solution for the genera- medium for the OPO.
tion of high-repetition-rate femtosecond pulses in BIBO is a relatively new nonlinear material with
new spectral regions, particularly the infrared (IR). interesting optical properties for frequency conver-
When pumped directly by the KLM Ti:sapphire laser, sion in the visible and ultraviolet (UV) spectra.3–6 It
they can readily provide femtosecond pulses through- has an optical transmission from ⬃2700 nm in the IR
out the 1 – 5 ␮m spectral range in the near- to mid- down to ⬃280 nm in the UV. As a biaxial crystal,
IR. For pulse generation in the visible spectrum, BIBO also exhibits very versatile phase-matching
however, the direct use of the KLM Ti:sapphire laser properties, large angular and spectral acceptance
is precluded, and additional frequency conversion bandwidths, low spatial walk-off, and a broadband
schemes have to be deployed in combination with the angle tuning at room temperature.5 While the UV
OPO approach. There have previously been a number transmission cutoff of BIBO occurs at a longer wave-
of attempts to provide femtosecond pulses in the vis- length than BBO, it offers substantially larger effec-
ible spectrum using synchronously pumped OPOs. tive nonlinearity measured to be as high as deff
One technique relies on direct pumping of femtosec- ⬃ 3.7 pm/ V,6 which is comparable to that in KTP.
ond OPOs with the KLM Ti:sapphire laser and sub- Such a combination of properties makes BIBO highly
sequent second-harmonic generation (SHG) of the attractive for frequency conversion in the visible and
near-IR signal pulses into the visible spectrum inter- UV spectra.
nal to the OPO cavity.1 Such systems have been The configuration of the visible femtosecond OPO
based on KTiOPO4 (KTP) or RbTiOAsO4 (RTA) as based on BIBO is shown in Fig. 1. The OPO is syn-
the OPO gain material and ␤-BaB2O4 (BBO) as the chronously pumped by the second harmonic of a KLM
SHG crystal. Because of the limited tuning capability Ti:sapphire laser (Coherent, Mira 900). The laser de-
of KTP and RTA, the visible pulses available to such livers pulses of ⬃130 fs at 76 MHz with an average
OPOs cover a confined spectral range of only ⬃80 nm power of up to 1.9 W over a tunable range of
from 580 to 660 nm. The second method has been 750– 950 nm. Frequency doubling of the laser is
based on frequency doubling of a KLM Ti:sapphire la- achieved in a single pass in a 1 mm crystal of BIBO.
ser the blue to directly pump a femtosecond OPO us- The crystal is cut for collinear critical type I 共e + e
ing noncollinear phase matching in BBO, where vis- → o兲 interaction in the yz plane 共␾ = 90° 兲 at an inter-
ible pulses over a limited range of 566– 676 nm were nal angle of ␪ ⬃ 152° at normal incidence. This geom-
generated at up to 100 mW average power.2 The com- etry yields a maximum theoretical effective nonlinear
bination of the two methods has enabled the genera- coefficient, deff ⬃ 3.3 pm/ V.5 An average power of
tion of femtosecond pulses in the visible spectrum, ⬎1 W in the blue at ⬎50% efficiency is available over
across a total tuning range of 566– 676 nm. However, a tunable range of 375– 435 nm.5,7 The blue pulses
the remaining gaps in the 500– 700 nm spectral have durations of ⬃220 fs.
range have so far been inaccessible to femtosecond The blue pump beam is focused to a waist radius
OPOs. w0 ⬃ 25 ␮m inside a second BIBO crystal, the gain el-
0146-9592/06/213128-3/$15.00 © 2006 Optical Society of America
 November 1, 2006 / Vol. 31, No. 21 / OPTICS LETTERS 3129

dicted tuning range for collinear type I 共o → e + e兲

phase matching in the optical yz plane obtained us-
ing the Sellmeier relations for BIBO,4 where good
agreement between the experimental data and theo-
retical calculation is evident. The OPO can be con-
tinuously tuned in the visible spectrum across the
green–yellow–orange–red, from 480 to 710 nm, by
changing the internal angle of the BIBO crystal be-
tween ␪ = 175° and ␪ = 154°. The corresponding tuning
range of the idler is from 3060 to 999 nm. For a given
crystal angle, wavelength tuning is also available
through the variation of the OPO cavity length. We
Fig. 1. Configuration of the visible BIBO femtosecond typically obtain ⬃10 nm of signal tuning for a change
OPO synchronously pumped by the second harmonic of in the OPO cavity length of ⬃3 ␮m. Interestingly, the
KLM Ti:sapphire laser in the blue. L1 and L2, focusing mid-IR idler wavelength of 3060 nm generated by the
lenses; P1 and P2, prisms. OPO is well beyond the nominal 2700 nm absorption
cutoff in BIBO. This could be due to the short crystal
length of 500 ␮m used in our experiment or may be
indicative of a longer IR transmission range in BIBO
than 2700 nm.
To optimize performance, we operated the OPO un-
der different output coupling conditions by using
plane mirrors 共M3兲 of different reflectivities at the
signal wavelength. The best performance was ob-
tained with an 8% output coupler, where a maximum
average signal power of 270 mW was extracted from
the OPO at ⬃620 nm for 800 mW of blue pump power
at the input to the BIBO crystal. The OPO could pro-
vide ⬎150 mW across 500– 700 nm and ⬎200 mW
across 530– 650 nm. At the extremes of the tuning
range toward 480 and 710 nm, a visible signal power
Fig. 2. Visible signal tuning range of BIBO femtosecond
OPO as a function of the internal angle under phase ⬎100 mW was still available. The reduction in the
matching in the optical yz plane. The pump wavelength is signal power at the extremes of the tuning range was
415 nm. attributed to the increase in the transmission of the
OPO mirrors away from the center of the tuning
ement for the femtosecond OPO. We use collinear curve. With the 8% output coupler, the oscillation
phase matching with the crystal cut for the type I threshold was 200 mW at the input to the OPO crys-
共o → e + e兲 interaction in the yz plane 共␾ = 90° 兲 at an tal equivalent to a fundamental Ti:sapphire laser
internal angle of ␪ ⬃ 159°. From considerations of power of 650 mW. With a high reflector plane mirror
group velocity mismatch (GVM) between the blue in place of an output coupler, the OPO power thresh-
pump and the visible signal pulses (GVM old was as low as 100 mW corresponding to a funda-
⬃ 101– 312 fs/ mm over 500– 700 nm), we use a crys- mental Ti:sapphire power of 420 mW.
tal length of 500 ␮m for the OPO. The crystal end Temporal characterization of the visible signal
faces are antireflection coated for the signal (R pulses were performed using autocorrelation mea-
⬍ 0.5% at 500– 700 nm) and have high transmission surements in a 500 ␮m crystal of BBO cut for type I
for the blue pump (T ⬎ 95% at 375– 435 nm). The 共o + o → e兲 phase matching at ␪ = 42° and a UV-
OPO is configured in a three-mirror, standing-wave enhanced silicon photodiode. Without group velocity
cavity comprising two concave reflectors (M1 and M2) dispersion compensation, the signal pulses were
of the radius of the curvature of r = 100 mm and a strongly chirped, with corresponding broadband
plane output coupler 共M3兲. The concave mirrors are double-peaked spectra, characteristic of self-phase
highly reflecting 共R ⬎ 99% 兲 for visible signal wave- modulation (SPM). A typical interferometric autocor-
lengths over 500– 680 nm and highly transmitting relation is represented in Fig. 3(a) with the corre-
共T ⬎ 90% 兲 for the blue pump over 380– 450 nm. The sponding spectrum at a center wavelength of
mirrors also have high transmission for the idler (T ⬃590 nm shown in Fig. 3(b). The autocorrelation pro-
⬎ 80% at 900– 3000 nm) thus ensuring singly reso- file is clearly indicative of chirped pulses with a time
nant oscillation. Two uncoated Brewster-cut fused- duration of ⬃170 fs. Due to the effects of SPM, the
silica prisms provide intracavity dispersion compen- corresponding spectrum has a bandwidth as wide as
sation. ⬃15 nm (FWHM), resulting in a time–bandwidth
Figure 2 shows the visible signal tuning range of product of ⌬␯⌬␶ ⬃ 2.2, approximately seven times the
the OPO at room temperature as a function of the transform limit.
crystal internal angle obtained at a fixed pump wave- We therefore implemented dispersion compensa-
length of 415 nm. The solid curve represents the pre- tion by introducing a pair of uncoated Brewster-cut
3130 OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 31, No. 21 / November 1, 2006

fused-silica prisms within the OPO cavity. Figures

4(a) and 4(b) show the resulting interferometric au-
tocorrelation and spectrum of the visible signal
pulses corresponding to a time duration of ⬃120 fs
and a spectral bandwidth (FWHM) of ⬃3.5 nm. The
time–bandwidth product is now ⌬␯⌬␶ ⬃ 0.35 indicat-
ing near-transform-limited pulses. The near-fivefold
spectral narrowing from ⬃15 to ⬃ 3.5 nm is indica-
tive of the effectiveness of intracavity dispersion com-
pensation in combating nonlinear chirp and spectral
broadening induced by SPM. We believe the mea-
sured pulse durations may, in fact, be shorter than
⬃120 fs due to the large GVM in the BBO autocorre-
lation crystal. The calculated GVM for SHG of visible
pulses in BBO varies from 690 fs to 275 fs/ mm for
fundamental wavelengths from 500 to 700 nm. At a
fundamental wavelength of 595 nm, the GVM is
422 fs/ mm, resulting in a mismatch of ⬃211 fs in a
500 ␮m crystal. This implies that the measured sig-
nal pulse duration of ⬃120 fs is likely limited by the
GVM in the BBO crystal, and the pulse duration may
be close to or shorter than ⬃100 fs. The use of a
shorter BBO crystal autocorrelation should enable
confirmation of shorter signal pulse durations.
In conclusion, we have demonstrated what is to our Fig. 4. (a) Typical interferometric autocorrelation and (b)
knowledge the first femotsecond OPO capable of cov- corresponding spectrum of the visible signal pulses with in-
ering the entire gap in the visible spectrum across tracavity group velocity dispersion compensation. The time
500– 700 nm. Using collinear phase matching and duration of ⬃120 fs and the spectral bandwidth of ⬃3.5 nm
angle tuning at room temperature, the OPO gener- result in near-transform-limited pulses with a time–
ates high-repetition-rate femtosecond pulses across bandwidth product of ⌬␯⌬␶ ⬃ 0.35.

480– 710 nm with a single crystal of BIBO and a

single set of mirrors. The wide coverage in the visible
spectrum combined with practical output powers,
near-transform-limited temporal characteristics, and
room-temperature operation should make the OPO
an attractive tool for a wide range of applications in
time-domain spectroscopy, frequency metrology, and
quantum optics.
M. Ebrahim-Zadeh ([Link]@[Link]) grate-
fully acknowledges personal support from the Insti-
tucio Catalana de Recerca I Estudis Avancats
(ICREA), Passeig Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona
08010, Spain.
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