Enhancement of Intracavity-Pumped Terahertz Parametric Oscillator Power by Adopting Diode-Side Pumped Configuration Based on KTiOPO4 Crystal

Abstract

In this paper, a KTiOPO4 (KTP) crystal is used as the nonlinear medium in an intracavity-pumped terahertz parametric oscillator (TPO) based on stimulated polariton scattering (SPS). Almost all the reported intracavity SPS sources adopt the diode-end pumped configuration, and the THz output power is limited by the serious thermal effect and small fundamental beam size. For improving the THz output power, we propose diode-side pumping for the laser medium to get a higher fundamental power and a larger fundamental beam size. A convex–plane fundamental laser resonator is used to further offset the thermal effect and increase the fundamental beam size. The THz frequency of the intracavity-pumped KTP terahertz parametric oscillator can be discontinuously tuned from 3.19 THz to 5.94 THz with three gaps. The fundamental beam diameter in the KTP crystal is about 1.3 mm. The maximum average THz power is 166 μW at 5.74 THz under a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 6 kHz and a diode pump power of 98 W. By means of the diode-side pumped configuration, the maximum THz output power is more than two-fold higher compared to the diode-end pumped configuration reported using the KTP crystal.