Highly efficient, high average power, narrowband, pump-tunable BWOPO.

We demonstrate a continuously tunable mid-infrared source that produces narrowband radiation at 1981 nm and 2145 nm based on a tunable Yb-based hybrid MOPA pump and a backward-wave optical parametric oscillator (BWOPO). The BWOPO employs a PPRKTP crystal with 580 nm domain periodicity. The BWOPO has a record-low oscillation threshold of 19.2 MW/cm2 and generates mJ level output with an overall efficiency exceeding 70%, reaching an average power of 5.65W at the repetition rate of 5 kHz. The system is mechanically robust and optical cavity-free, making it suitable for spectroscopic systems on mobile platforms. The mid-infrared signal frequency is tuned by pump tuning with a linear pump-to-signal frequency translation rate close to the predicted 1 to 1.001 Hz/Hz.