Intracavity optical parametric oscillator at 1.57-μm wavelength pumped by passive Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄ laser

A high-repetition-rate eye-safe optical parametric oscillator (OPO), using a non-critically phase-matched KTP crystal intracavity pumped by a passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄/Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser, is experimentally demonstrated. The conversion efficiency for the average power is 7% from pump diode input to OPO signal output and the slope efficiency is up to 10.3%. With an incident pump power of 7.3 W, the compact intracavity OPO (IOPO) cavity, operating at 15 kHz, produces an average power of 0.57 W at 1570 nm with a pulse width as short as 6 ns. The peak power at 1570 nm is higher than 6.3 kW.