Lithium triborate optical parametric oscillator pumped at 266 nm

Abstract
A new optical parametric oscillator based on the pumping of noncritically phase-matched lithium triborate at 266 nm is reported. Tunable in the UV near 314 nm and in the IR near 1.74 μm, pump pulse energies of 0.5 mJ (~10-ns pulses at 266 nm) are sufficient to reach oscillation threshold, and pump depletions of ~25% at 3–4 times threshold are obtained.