Cavity-augmented frequency tripling of a continuous wave mode-locked laser

We present a model and experimental investigation of a singly-resonant optical cavity to enhance the nonlinear conversion efficiency of a continuous wave mode-locked all-solid-state laser source to produce an efficient source of ultraviolet radiation. For input pulses of approximately 33 ps duration at 4.4 ns intervals, our model predicts greater than 30% conversion from fundamental to third harmonic which is particularly attractive for fundamental sources of modest average power. Experimentally, we have achieved overall optical conversion efficiencies from fundamental to third harmonic wavelength typically greater than 11%, compared with less than 0.4% in a single pass geometry. We have measured an average power of 320 mW at lambda = 355 nm at picosecond pulse duration, which corresponds to a generated third harmonic average power of 0.5 W.