ZnGeP2 in High Power Optical Parametric Oscillators

In this paper we discuss the advantageous properties of ZnGeP
₂
for high power parametric oscillators. We present results with high conversion efficiency, good beam quality and high power. We have demonstrated 5.1 W in the 3-5 mum range and 0.95 W at 8 mum in a first round of experiments. In a new and power-scaled setup we predict more than 25 W of average power in the 3-5 mum range and 7 W at 8 mum.