A versatile, all solid-state, single-frequency, yellow light source with ultrahigh frequency stability

Summary form only given. Optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) are attractive tools for high-resolution spectroscopy because of their tunability stability, narrow linewidth and efficiency. Doubly resonant OPOs (DROs) in particular offer low threshold operation with large continuous tuning ranges, typically tens of gigahertz. Their use for high-resolution spectroscopy in the infrared at Doppler-broadened resolution levels has been demonstrated. We report on the construction and characterization of a frequency-doubled DRO which, for the first time, emits in the visible. It exhibits excellent spectral purity and stability and is well suited for ultra-high resolution spectroscopy. A semi-monolithic MgO:LiNbO/sub 3/ DRO is pumped by a CW frequency-doubled monolithic ring Nd:YAG laser with up to 500 mW at 532 nm, producing up to 112 mW of signal power tunable from 962-1005 nm and up to 95 mW of idler power tunable from 1130-1190 nm. We have measured a free-running stability of less than 1 GHz for up to 20 hours in a single mode pair.