Mechanism and Implementation of a Bidirectional-Pumped Femtosecond Optical Parametric Oscillator With Single Cavity and Single Crystal

We develop a single cavity, single crystal, bidirectional-pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator. Unlike the conventional single-pumped OPO, the pump pulses are injected into the OPO cavity from the front and reverse directions, respectively, which can double the tolerable maximum pump power onto the nonlinear crystal. By means of synchronizing the two signals generated from the bidirectional pump pulses, distinct improvements for optical-to-optical conversion efficiency, maximum signal power, and operational stability in the bidirectional pumped OPO have been demonstrated.