Periodically poled RbTiOAsO/sub 4/ femtosecond optical parametric oscillator tunable from 1.38 to 1.58 /spl mu/m

Summary form only given. The OPO described operates at room temperature and is continuously tunable over 200 nm from 1.375 to 1.575 /spl mu/m using only a single-cavity mirror set. The OPO is based on periodically poled RbTiOAsO/sub 4/ (PPRTA). The crystal used had a grating period of 30 /spl mu/m and was 5 mm long, 0.5 mm wide, and 5 mm high. The crystal was antireflection coated for a wavelength of 1.1 /spl mu/m, and we estimate the loss of each surface at a wavelength of 1.5 /spl mu/m to be /spl sim/1%. The OPO was synchronously pumped by a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser at a repetition rate of 84 MHz, with output pulses of 100 fs duration and centered at a wavelength of 850 nm. We used a 90-mm focal-length lens to focus the pump beam into the PPRTA crystal. The polarization of the pump, signal, and idler wavelengths were all horizontal in the cavity and parallel to the poling direction.