Patent ID: 8867584

Claim:
A method for reducing relaxation oscillations in a singly-resonant continuous-wave intra-cavity optical parametric oscillator that has a gain-medium for generating a pump-wave within a pump-wave cavity and a nonlinear medium for generating a down-converted radiation, the method comprising: selecting or modifying the gain-medium such that a lifetime τ u of its upper laser state, in an absence of stimulated emission, is of an order equal to or less than a smaller of either: (i) a lifetime τ p of the pump-wave in the pump-wave cavity, or (ii) a lifetime τ s of a component of the down-converted radiation that is resonant in a cavity of the optical parametric oscillator, and operating the intra-cavity optical parametric oscillator using the selected or modified gain-medium to thereby dampen relaxation oscillations, such that relaxation oscillations in the continuous-wave-singly resonate intra-cavity optical parametric oscillator are reduced.