Femtosecond optical parametric oscillators based on MgO:PPLN operating at room temperature

Summary form only given. We report on an experimental investigation of MgO:PPLN synchronously pumped OPOs (SPOPOs) excited by two different fs-laser sources. The used fs-laser sources were a Kerr-lens-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser or an additive-pulse-mode-locked Yb:YAG laser. Mode-locked Ti:sapphire lasers are reliable sources for fs-laser pulses with pulse lengths well below 100 fs. Besides the generation of very short pulses the wavelength tunability is another attractive feature. On the other hand, the output power is usually limited to less than 2 W. Femtosecond laser pulses of considerably higher average power are generated by lasers with fixed wavelength. An Yb:YAG laser passively mode-locked by a saturable absorber mirror, for example, generated 600 fs laser pulses at 1030 nm with an average output power of up to 11 W. This mode-locking technique restricted, however, the repetition rate to 35 MHz.