Waveguide-Based Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Oscillator

Fiber-based optical parametric oscillators (FOPOs) are versatile and tunable light sources for sensing, spectroscopic as well as imaging applications [1]. Compared to FOPOs, waveguide-based OPOs (WOPOs) are benefiting from higher effective nonlinearity and more compact dimensions, providing potential for further miniaturization of WOPOs, e.g., for all-on-a-chip devices [2]. The output wavelength of synchronously pumped WOPOs is dispersively tunable by adjusting the cavity length, however, the adjustment of the spectral bandwidth requires additional control of the pump bandwidth [3]. For flexible adjustment of the output bandwidth a recent numerical study [4] discovered a new degree of freedom, and in our work now, we experimentally verify that pumping a WOPO with chirped pulses accomplishes to generate idler pulses with easily adjustable bandwidth.