Abstract
We investigated a high-output ower, periodically poled lithium niobate(PPLN) optical parametric oscillator(OPO) pumped by a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Given the low optical damage threshold and the limited aperture (0.5mm thick) of PPLN, we tried to maximize the signal output power in a linear cavity consisting of two flat mirrors with a loosely focused pump beam. It is found that this simple cavity structure allowed a robust OPO operation, which was not sensitive to alignment compared with the conventional ones using concave mirrors. A maximum energy of 100$\mu$J/pulse was achieved for the signal at 1.36${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$, while the oscillation threshold was 0.3 mJ/pulse for the pump at 1064 nm.