Patent ID: 7486435

Claim:
An optical parametric oscillator, comprising: a source of a plurality of coherent energetic pump optical signals; and an optical resonator cavity including: a plurality of optical parametric amplifying (OPA) crystals disposed in series along an optical path; and a plurality of optical elements disposed along the optical path, the optical elements being configured (1) to direct an oscillation optical signal generated by the OPA crystals along the optical path, (2) to provide input coupling of the energetic pump optical signals such that each energetic pump optical signal travels through a corresponding distinct one of the OPA crystals to result in a corresponding depleted pump optical signal, and (3) to provide output coupling of the depleted pump optical signals to prevent each depleted pump optical signal from traveling through more than one of the OPA crystals, wherein the optical path of the optical resonator has multiple pumped legs arranged at non-zero angles with respect to each other, each pumped leg including a respective one of the OPA crystals, and wherein corresponding ones of the optical elements comprise mirrors arranged between adjacent pairs of the legs, the mirrors being reflective with respect to the oscillator optical signal but transmissive with respect to the energetic and depleted pump optical signals, wherein the oscillation optical signal is a resonated wave that contains only one of a signal wave and an idler wave, wherein a non-resonated wave generated by each OPA crystal along the optical oath is separated from the resonated wave and exits the optical resonator cavity with the depleted pump signal for each corresponding OPA crystal, the non-resonated wave containing the other of the signal wave and the idler wave contained by the resonated wave.