Continuous-wave singly resonant optical parametric oscillator placed inside a ring laser.

A cw singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (SRO) was built and placed inside the cavity of a ring laser. The system consists of a diode-end-pumped Nd:YVO4 ring laser with intracavity periodically poled lithium niobate as the nonlinear gain medium of the SRO. When the laser was operated in a unidirectional mode, we obtained more than 520 mW of signal power in one beam. When the laser was operated in a bidirectional mode, we obtained 600 mW of signal power (300 mW in two separate beams). The power and the spectral features of the laser in the unidirectional and bidirectional modes were measured while the laser was coupled with the SRO. The results show that it is preferable to couple a SRO with a unidirectional ring laser.