Coherent phase transfer and pulse compression at 1.4 μm in a backward-wave OPO

The frequency modulation transfer property of a backward-wave optical parametric oscillator (BWOPO) is investigated in the context of near-IR pulse compression. The maximum transferrable bandwidth from the pump to the forward wave in a BWOPO is determined by the group dispersion mismatch. In comparison, the third-order phase introduced in a single-grating compressor setup is more detrimental to achieve optimum compression of the BWOPO forward wave. Nevertheless, we demonstrate a 220 GHz bandwidth transfer from 800 nm to 1.4 mu m, with a compression factor of 115, leading to near-IR pulses as short as 1.3 ps with mu J energy.(C) 2019 Optical Society of America