Few-cycle, Broadband, Mid-infrared Optical Parametric Oscillator Pumped by a 20-fs Ti:sapphire Laser

We report a few-cycle, broadband, singly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) for the mid-infrared based on MgO-doped periodically-poled LiNbO3 (MgO:PPLN), synchronously pumped by a 20-fs Ti:sapphire laser. By using crystal interaction lengths as short as 250 um, and careful dispersion management of input pump pulses and the OPO resonator, near-transform-limited, few-cycle idler pulses tunable across the mid-infrared have been generated, with as few as 3.7 optical cycles at 2682 nm. The OPO can be continuously tuned over 2179-3732 nm by cavity delay tuning, providing up to 33 mW of output power at 3723 nm. The idler spectra exhibit stable broadband profiles with bandwidths spaning over 422 nm (FWHM) recorded at 3732 nm. We investigate the effect of crystal length on spectral bandwidth and pulse duration at a fixed wavelength, confirming near-transform-limited idler pulses for all grating interaction lengths. By locking the repetition frequency of the pump laser to a radio-frequency reference, and without active stabilization of the OPO cavity length, an idler power stability better than 1.6% rms over >2.75 hours is obtained when operating at maximum output power, in excellent spatial beam quality with TEM00 mode profile.