Active mode locking of continuous-wave doubly and singly resonant optical parametric oscillators

Opt Lett. 2007 Jun 15;32(12):1701-3. doi: 10.1364/ol.32.001701.

Abstract

We report on what we believe to be the first active mode locking of near-degenerate, doubly and singly resonant cw-pumped optical parametric oscillators (OPOs). We show experimentally that a steady-state regime of short pulses is reached in a few tens of microseconds under cw pumping. The oscillation buildup dynamics of both OPOs is also explored, evidencing an unusual transient behavior in the mode-locking process.