A 1 MWP-terphenyl dye laser

P-terphenyl in cyclohexane, has been pumped by a KrF laser in a longitudinal configuration. Dye laser pulses of 11 mJ, 1 MW were obtained with over 10% conversion efficiency. N₂ purge of the dye solution is shown to increase the conversion efficiency. The tuning curve between 321.8 nm and 365.3 nm is presented.     

Performance studies of a pulsed HF laser with a sliding discharge plasma cathode

The plasma electrode design concept is applied for the first time to an HF laser. The discharge along the surface of a dielectric (sliding discharge) is used as a plasma cathode for the main laser discharge. The laser operates at atmospheric pressure with a gas mixture of He/SF₆/C₃H₈. Details are presented on the efficiency of energy transfer, the dependence of laser performance on circuit parameters, gas mixture, relative energy loading and time delay between the plasma electrode and main discharges. The F atom production rate is estimated from the linear dependence of the output energy on the electric charge passed through the discharge. Output energies of 600 mJ were obtained at 1.6% efficiency from a small active discharge of 108 cm₃ volume and 38 cm length, while the maximum specific input and output energies were 370 J/1 and 5.7 J/1, respectively. These values compare favourably with those reported in the literature for non-chain-reaction-type gas mixtures at 1 atm pressure and demonstrate that the plasma electrode design is a powerful scheme for developing gas-discharge lasers.     

Diode-pumped Tm:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> lasers with double etalons

Diode end-pumped single-frequency Tm:GdVO₄ laser at room temperature was reported. The maximal output power of single-frequency is as high as 51 mW by using two uncoated fused YAG etalons, which are respectively 0.05 mm thick and 1 mm thick. We obtained the single frequency Tm:GdVO₄ laser at 1919.7 nm. The slope efficiency is 1.4%. The single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.     

Lasing of a single crystal Nd fluoride fiber

We present laser action in a single crystal fluoride fiber obtained by the micro-pulling-down technique. The 700 μm diameter and 1 cm long Nd:LiYF₄ fiber was pumped by a beam shaped diode bar emitting at 806 nm. A peak power of 300 mW was achieved with a slope efficiency of 12%. When considering the pump power fraction absorbed by the laser mode, a slope efficiency of 37% was achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a Nd: LiYF₄ fiber laser.     

diode-pumped single-frequency Tm:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser at 1897.6 nm

A diode end-pumped Tm:GdVO₄ laser at room temperature is reported. The maximal output power of single-frequency is as high as 34 mW by using two uncoated fused etalons, which are respectively 0.05 mm thick YAG and 1mm thick quartz. We obtained the single frequency Tm:GdVO₄ laser at 1897.6 nm with the slope efficiency of 1.3%. The single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.     

Optically excitedP-quaterphenyl vapour laser

We report the observation of laser action at 350 nm in an organic scintillatorp-quaterphenyl (PQT) in the vapour phase. Pure vapours and their mixtures with SF₆ and N₂ were excited with the fourth harmonic of an Nd laser (266 nm) in transverse pumping geometry. The measured conversion efficiency of the PQT vapour laser was 1% under nonoptimum conditions. Absorption spectrum and vapour density curve are given. Influence of buffer gases on the threshold pump intensity and fluorescence efficiency is reported.     

A high efficiency Ho:YAlO<Subscript>3</Subscript> laser pumped by Tm:YLF laser with a Volume Bragg Grating

We report a CW Ho:YAlO₃ (Ho:YAP) laser at room temperature pumped by a Tm:YLF laser with a Volume Bragg Grating (VBG) instead of the conventional mirror. The Ho:YAP laser operated at 2117.9 nm with output power 9.12 W. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 60.4% and slope efficiency is 71.2%. The Ho:YAP output wavelength is centered at 2117.9 nm with bandwidth of about 1 nm. The beam quality factor is M ² ∼ 1.29 measured by the traveling knife-edge method.     

Benefits of cryogenic cooling on the operation of a pulsed CO2 laser

The paper presents results of a theoretical model of a pulsed electron beam controlled CO₂ laser (EBCL) to investigate the effect of cooling on the laser gas mixture. It is shown that cryogenic cooling can significantly improve the performance of the laser. The efficiency of an EBCL improved from 20% to 25.3% by cooling it to 200 K. The improvement is mainly due to the decrease of thermal population of the CO₂ (0 1 0) vibration level.     

Room temperature diode-pumped 1875.1 nm Tm:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

A diode end-pumped single-frequency Tm:GdVO₄ laser at room temperature was reported. The maximal output power of single-frequency is as high as 66 mW by using two uncoated fused etalons, which are respectively 0.05 mm thick YAG and 1 mm thick quartz. We obtained the single frequency Tm:GdVO₄ laser at 1875.1 nm. The slope efficiency is 1.5%. The change of the lasing wavelength on temperature was also measured. The single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.     

Power enhancement of the cw 12.08 μm NH3 Raman laser with the addition of H2/He buffer gases

The effects of H₂, He, and N₂ buffer gases on the efficiency of the cw 12.08 μm NH₃ Raman laser are studied experimentally. The laser output power is increased by nearly 60% with the addition of H₂ or He, which we essentially attribute to the high thermal conductivity of these buffer gases. In the optimum conditions (NH₃/H₂:1/1 mixture with 0.35 Torr partial pressure of NH₃) 3.3 W output power at 12.08 μm is obtained which corresponds to 11% power conversion efficiency.     

Holmium laser in-band pumped by a thulium laser in the same host of YAlO3

We report on the room-temperature continuous-wave (CW) operation of a Ho:YAlO₃ laser that is resonantly end pumped at 1.94 μm by a diode-pumped thulium-doped laser in the same host. Through the use of a 1 at % Ho³⁺-doped 20-mm-long YAlO₃ crystal (b cut), the Ho:YAlO₃ laser generated 1 W of linearly polarized (E//c) output at 2118 nm and 0.55 W of E//a output at 2128.5 nm for an incident pump power of 5 W, with an output coupler transmission of 14 and 3%, respectively. An optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 20% and a slope efficiency of 33% were achieved at 2118 nm corresponding to an incident pump power.     

Studies of a high performance TE CO2 laser using additives

It has been observed that significant increases (～ 40%) in both the small-signal gain and laser efficiency occur when small, carefully controlled quantities of tripropylamine are added to the gas mixture of a TE CO₂ laser. The results obtained are compared with the predictions of a detailed molecular kinetics model and are shown to be consistent with the proposal that doping helps to maintain the discharge uniformity at high energy loadings. With the small TE laser employed, the use of tripropylamine has enabled laser energy densities of ～ 47J 1^-1 atm^-1 to be achieved at a discharge efficiency of ～ 10%     

Improvement in piezoelectric effect of violet InGaN laser diodes

The laser performance of violet InGaN laser diodes is investigated numerically. The polarization-dependent properties, including overlap of electron and hole wavefunctions, threshold current, and slope efficiency, are studied through the use of step-like quantum well structure. Furthermore, the electron and hole wavefunctions, band diagrams, and emission wavelength are compared and analyzed. The simulation results show that the lowest threshold current and the highest slope efficiency are obtained when the step-like quantum well structure is designed as In_0.12Ga_0.88N (2.5 nm)-In_0.18Ga_0.82N (1 nm) or In_0.18Ga_0.82N (2.5 nm)-In_0.12Ga_0.88N (1 nm) for violet laser diodes due to sufficiently enhanced overlap of electron and hole wavefunctions.     

Efficient pulse operation of Nd:GdVO4 laser with AO Q-switch

We realized an efficient laser diode-pumped Nd:GdVO₄ laser with crystals grown by the floating zone method. In the lasing experiment, a slope efficiency of 78% was achieved with a 1 at.% Nd-doped crystal by pumping at 879 nm. Furthermore, excellent pulsed laser operation was demonstrated with the Nd:GdVO₄ crystal by using an acousto-optical (AO) Q-switch. A pulse width of 7 ns was observed when the pulse-repetition frequency was 40 kHz. It is the shortest pulse width recorded in the case of the AO Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄ laser.     

Efficient quasi-three-level Nd:YAG laser at 946 nm pumped by a tunable external cavity tapered diode laser

Using a tunable external cavity tapered diode laser (ECDL) pumped quasi-three-level Nd:YAG laser, a fivefold reduction in threshold and twofold increase in slope efficiency is demonstrated when compared to a traditional broad area diode laser pump source. A TEM₀₀ power of 800 mW with 65% slope efficiency is obtained, the highest reported TEM₀₀ power from any 946 nm Nd:YAG laser pumped by a single emitter diode laser pump source. A quantum efficiency of 0.85 has been estimated from experimental data using a simple quasi-three-level model. The reported value is in good agreement with published values, suggesting that the model is adequate. Improvement of the 946 nm laser due to the ECDL's narrow spectrum proves to be less significant when compared to its spatial quality, inferring a broad spectrum tapered diode laser pump source may be most practical. Experimental confirmation of such setup is given.     

Comparison of eye-safe KTA OPOs pumped by Nd:YVO4 and Nd:YLF lasers

An eye-safe KTA OPO pumped by a Nd:YLF laser is demonstrated and a comparison with that pumped by a Nd:YVO₄ laser is performed. Although the slope efficiency of the continuous-wave free-running Nd:YLF laser is lower than that of the Nd:YVO₄ laser, the performance of KTA OPOs pumped by the Q-switched Nd:YLF laser is better, especially at lower repetition rates. The slope efficiency of KTA OPO pumped by a Nd:YLF laser is 14.6% at 30 kHz and 11.04% at 10 kHz. The better energy storage ability of Nd:YLF makes it an excellent laser medium in IOPOs.     

A high polarization microchip green laser with dual Nd:YVO4 crystal

A high polarization Nd:YVO₄/KTP laser with dual crossed gain crystal is reported. Using two optical axis orthogonal Nd:YVO₄ crystal as gain medium, eliminating the depolarization effect of single Nd:YVO₄ crystal, the high polarization green laser is obtained. With 1.8 W diode laser pump power the output power of TEM₀₀ green laser is 366 mW, the light–light conversion efficiency is up to 20.3%, and the polarization ratio is 110:1. This laser has the advantages of being simple and easily attainable at a low cost, and it is suitable for batch production.     

Design and the operational characteristics of a 16 µ CF4 laser

The design and the operational characteristics of a CO₂ laser pumped CF₄ laser developed at BARC are reported. Output energies of up to 20 mJ have been obtained at 615 cm⁻¹ with an absorbed energy conversion efficiency of 10%.     

紧凑的非链式脉冲HF激光器

研究了气体组分和峰化电容对紫外光预电离脉冲HF激光器性能的影响.实验发现最佳气体混合比为SF₆/C₂H₆=20:1,峰化电容和主放电电容的最佳比为C_p/C_s=0.3,在最佳气体混合比时,最大激光脉冲峰值功率和对应的总气压随充电电压的提高而增大.同时得到了E/P值和激光能量的关系.整个器件的最大激光输出为400mJ,脉冲峰值功率为1.5MW,最大电光转换效率约为2.2%.     

Analytical and Experimental Studies on Nd:YVO4/KTP Lasers Pumped by High-brightness Laser Diodes

We report analytical and experimental studies on the characteristics of a high-brightness laser diode endpumped Nd:YVO₄/KTP laser. A simple model was developed to optimize the cavity parameters and estimate the green output power of intracavity frequency doubled lasers. Using a 1 W high-brightness laser diode as the pump source, high efficiency operation was realized. The second-harmonic output power at 532 nm was measured to be 286.5 mW at an incident pump power of 881.4 mW, corresponding to an optical to optical efficiency of 32.5%.