title: Three-photon absorption in optical parametric oscillators based on OP-GaAs.
abstract: We report on, to the best of our knowledge, the first singly resonant (SR), synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on orientation-patterned gallium arsenide (OP-GaAs). Together with a doubly resonant (DR) degenerate OPO based on the same OP-GaAs material, the output spectra cover 3 to 6 μm within ∼3  dB of relative power. The DR-OPO has the highest output power reported to date from a femtosecond, synchronously pumped OPO based on OP-GaAs. We observed strong three-photon absorption with a coefficient of 0.35±0.08  cm3/GW2for our OP-GaAs sample, which limits the output power of these OPOs as mid-IR light sources. We present a detailed study of the three-photon loss on the performance of both the SR- and DR-OPOs, and compare them to those without this loss mechanism.
authors.forename: Oliver H
authors.initials: OH
authors.lastname: Heckl
authors.forename: Bryce J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Bjork
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bryan Changala
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Spaun
authors.forename: Gil
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Porat
authors.forename: Thinh Q
authors.initials: TQ
authors.lastname: Bui
authors.forename: Kevin F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Martin E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Fermann
authors.forename: Peter G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Schunemann
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ye