A COMPACT EYE-SAFE OPO PUMPED BY A Nd: YAG MICROCHIP MOPA

A compact high peak power eye-safer optical parametric oscillator was constructed by pumping it with a master oscillator power amplifier consisting of a large-mode-area ytterbium doped fiber amplifier and a diode-pumped, passively Q-switched Nd:YAG microchip laser. The master oscillator power amplifier has the maximum output pulse energy of 570 μJ with a 3 nanosecond pulse width and a 3 kHz pulse repetition rate. The compact singly resonating optical parametric oscillator utilized a 50 mm periodically poled Lithium Niobate crystal and generated high peak power 1.5 μm eye-safe laser pulses with more than 140 μJ pulse energy, 3 nanosecond pulse width and 3 kHz repetition rate.