Research on performance improvement technology of a BaGa₄Se₇ mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator

In this Letter, we demonstrate an average output power of 5.12 W at 3–5 µm from a type-I phase-matching BaGa₄Se₇ (BGSe) optical parametric oscillator (OPO), which is pumped by a 2090 nm Q-switched Ho:YAG laser with pulse repetition frequency of 1 kHz. At maximum output level, the corresponding slope efficiency and optical-to-optical conversion efficiency are 30.0% and 18.3%, respectively. Moreover, under ring cavity conditions, the BGSe OPO produced a 3.04 W mid-infrared laser with high beam quality factors M² of 1.47 in the horizontal direction and 1.51 in the vertical direction. Besides, the wavelength-tuning curve for type-I BGSe was also investigated, corresponding to an idler wavelength-tuning range of 4.5–5.3 µm, and the signal light wavelength was 4.5 to 4.1 µm.