Patent ID: 6433918
Filing Date: 2002-08-13
Classification: G02F

Abstract:
An optical parametric oscillator comprising:a nonlinear element for converting an incident pump beam of angular frequency &ohgr;p into a combination of a signal wave of angular frequency &ohgr;s and an idler wave of angular frequency &ohgr;i at an arbitrary angular frequency ratio, beam splitting means for splitting the combination exiting the nonlinear element into the signal wave of angular frequency &ohgr;s and the idler wave of angular frequency &ohgr;i, signal optical resonance means for resonating the signal wave split by the beam splitting means at a resonator optical length Ls between an input mirror and a first end mirror, and idler optical resonance means for resonating the idler wave split by the beam splitting means at a resonator optical length Li between an input mirror and a second end mirror, the resonator optical length Ls of the signal optical resonance means and the resonator optical length Li of the idler optical resonance means being set to satisfy the relationship Li/Ls=&ohgr;i /&ohgr;s, a signal wave reflection side functioning as the first end mirror, of the signal optical resonance means and an idler wave reflection side functioning as the second end mirror of the idler optical resonance means being faced in opposite directions to form a common end minor, and continuous frequency tuning being conducted while maintaining signal wave and idler wave oscillations by moving the common end mirror within a range wherein a maximum variation range &dgr;L(Max) satisfies &dgr;L(Max)=2C&ggr;/[&ohgr;sâˆ’&ohgr;pÃ—Ls/(Ls+Li)] (where C is the velocity of light and &ggr; is an optical resonator loss parameter).