Widely tunable mid-infrared fiber-feedback optical parametric oscillator

Synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) provide uniquely versatile platforms to generate ultrafast mid-infrared pulses within a spectral range beyond the access of conventional mode-locked lasers. However, conventional OPO sources based on bulk crystals have been plagued by complex optical alignment and large physical footprint. Here, we devise and implement two OPO variants based on a polarization-maintaining fiber-feedback cavity, which allow to robustly deliver sub-picosecond MIR pulses without the need of active stabilization. The first one integrates an erbium-doped fiber into the OPO cavity as the additional gain medium, which significantly reduces the pump threshold and allows stable optical pulse formation within a spectral range of 1553–1586 nm. The second one adopts a chirped poling nonlinear crystal in a passive-fiber cavity to further extend the operation spectral coverage, which facilitates broad tuning ranges of 1350–1768 nm and 2450–4450 nm for the signal and idler bands, respectively. Therefore, the presented mid-infrared OPO source is featured with high compactness, robust operation, and wide tunability, which would be attractive for subsequent applications such as infrared photonics, biomedical examination, and molecular spectroscopy.