Pulse compression in a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator with a graphene saturable absorber

Intrinsic pulse compression by cavity length detuning in synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (SPOPO) is well known and has already been studied [1]. This phenomenon mainly depends on the group velocities difference (GVD) between pump, signal and idler waves. The main drawback of this pulse compression technique is that it is strongly linked to material dispersion and thus cannot be realised in every kind of nonlinear material and for every wavelength. To avoid this limitation, another way to compress the SPOPO signal pulses is to insert an intracavity saturable absorber (SA). This method has already been investigated theoretically [2], [3]. For the first time to our knowledge, we report here an experimental implementation of this method in an SPOPO based on a chirped quasi-phase-matched nonlinear material. This work follows our previous theoretical study [3].