Acentric cubic NaClO3– a new crystal for Raman lasers

3 crystal were investigated. At room temperature under picosecond excitation efficient high-order stimulated Raman scattering in the visible and near-IR regions was observed. A total conversion efficiency of the 1-μm Nd³⁺:Y₃Al₅O₁₂ laser-pump emission to Stokes and anti-Stokes lines of about 70% was estimated. All registered scattered laser components were identified. We classify the NaClO₃ single crystal as a promising χ⁽³⁾ medium for Raman lasers. Received: 14 January 1998     

Multiplication of spectral lines generated by two-color stimulated raman effect

A dye laser emitting at four different frequencies separated by 293.5 (=587/2) cm^-1 is made by inserting an etalon in the resonator cavity of the laser. This laser beam is focused into molecular hydrogen (rotational Raman shift frequency, 587 cm^-1) to generate a multicolor laser beam consisting of more than 10 rotational lines in the vicinity of the fundamental lines by four-wave Raman mixing. Such rotational lines also occur in the vicinity of the vibrational Raman lines. Thus more than 25 emission lines appear simultaneously. This approach is useful to multiply the line density, i.e., the emission lines within a specified wavelength region.     

Fiber-delivered picosecond source for coherent Raman scattering imaging

We demonstrate a two-color, fiber-delivered picosecond source for coherent Raman scattering (CRS) imaging. The wavelength-tunable picosecond pump is generated by nonlinear spectral compression of a prechirped femtosecond pulse from a mode-locked titanium:sapphire (Ti:S) laser. The 1064?nm picosecond Stokes pulse is generated by an all-fiber time-lens source that is synchronized to the Ti:S laser. The pump and Stokes beams are combined in an optical fiber coupler, which serves not only as the delivery fiber but also as the nonlinear medium for spectral compression of the femtosecond pulse. CRS imaging of mouse skin is performed to demonstrate the practicality of this source.     

Experimental and theoretical investigation of tunable picosecond pulse generation in longitudinally pumped dye laser generators and amplifiers

Picosecond pulse generation in longitudinally pumped dye laser generators and amplifiers is studied experimentally and theoretically. Frequency-tunable pulses between 720 and 940 nm are generated with a picosecond ruby laser pump source. The amplification of spontaneous emission and of seeding pulses in the generator and amplifier cells is investigated. Stimulated emission cross-sections and excited-state absorption cross-sections are determined by computer simulations. The coherence properties of the generated radiation are analysed. Resonance Raman contributions are resolved.     

Orthorhombic YAlO3 – a novel many‐phonon SRS‐active crystal

In single crystals of orthorhombic YAlO₃, widely known as a host‐matrix for Ln³⁺‐lasant ions, many‐phonon stimulated Raman scattering interactions as well as different manifestations of cascaded and cross‐cascaded nonlinear χ⁽³⁾↔χ⁽³⁾ processes are initiated by picosecond laser pulses. The scientific and applicative potential of YAlO₃ crystals is considerably expanded by the demonstration of its SRS properties. In particular, the studies revealed the manifestation of eight χ⁽³⁾‐active vibrational modes. The corresponding Stokes and anti‐Stokes lines have been assigned and the steady‐state Raman gain coefficients related to the strongest phonon mode have been estimated. In addition, a short review presents the stimulated emission channels of its Ln³⁺‐ions together with some χ⁽³⁾‐nonlinear laser properties of crystals belonging to the binary Y₂O₃‐Al₂O₃ system.     

Transformation of resonant Raman scattering into luminescence in CdxZn1−xTe mixed crystals: Time-resolved spectroscopy

We report an experimental study of time characteristics of secondary emission in Cd_xZn_1-xTe mixed crystals (x = 0.32) under resonant excitation with a picosecond dye laser. When the incident laser frequency is tuned on to the luminescence maximum of localized excitons, the decay curve of the intensity of “Raman-like” lines exhibits a single exponential decay. Off resonance, however, a short-lived component corresponding to Raman scattering appears in addition to the long-lived component. The intensity of the Raman component relative to that of the luminescence component increases with increase of the off-resonance frequency. From these temporal behaviors, we have found, for the first time, the transformation of resonant Raman scattering into luminescence in mixed crystals as a function of incident frequencies.     

LiIO3晶体的受激拉曼散射

 采用腔外单次通过方式,测量了LiIO₃晶体在532 nm皮秒脉冲下的受激拉曼散射。实验中观察到3级斯托克斯线（556.07,582.30, 611.76 nm）和1级反斯托克斯线（509.57 nm）,由此可计算出其频率间隔为820 cm^-1。测量了LiIO₃晶体各级拉曼散射谱线的阈值和增益系数,受激拉曼散射的整体转换效率达到56%。基于LiIO₃晶体实现了皮秒外腔式拉曼激光器的运转,双波长输出总转换效率为27%,最大输出能量1.4 mJ。     

Synthesis of w-CdS quantum dots and discovery of intense sub band emission owing to longitudinal optical phonons

Cadmium sulfide (CdS) quantum dots (QDs), capped with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and was synthesized as stable, aqueous, colloidal nanofluid. A series of nine intense, well-resolved emission lines between 400 and 750 nm were observed for the first time when exciting the CdS QDs nanofluid with a 355-nm high energy pulsed Nd:YAG laser radiation. The energy separation between any two successive emission lines equals to the characteristic overtone energy of 295 cm⁻¹ of the longitudinal optical phonon of CdS QDs. In addition, recording the PL spectrum by using a xenon broad band light source resulted in the observation of this characteristic overtone energy of 295 cm⁻¹. In agreement with this photoluminescence characteristic, Raman spectrum exhibited four prominent Stokes lines with Raman shift equal to and multiple of 295 cm⁻¹. Transmission electron microscopy investigation showed that the CdS QDs were spherical with hexagonal wurtzite structure and had a size in the range of 5–10 nm.     

On the role of prepulses during solid target heating by picosecond laser pulses

X-ray emission spectra of the plasma created at the surface of magnesium, aluminum, copper, and zinc targets heated by 1-ps laser pulses with a peak power density of up to 10¹⁶ W/cm² were measured. The effect of a picosecond prepulse on the spectra was studied for various power densities and intensity contrasts of the main laser pulse. It is established that the emission spectra of laser plasmas are weakly affected by a change from 10⁵ to 10⁷ in the main pulse contrast relative to the first prepulse. Variations in the parameters of emission from aluminum and magnesium plasmas were calculated using relative intensities and widths of the resonance lines of H-and He-like ions and their two-electron satellite peaks.     

Cascaded and cross-cascaded χ(3) nonlinear optical effects in a new SRS-active YAlO3 crystal

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is discovered under picosecond laser excitation in a YAlO₃ orthorhombic crystal, and its cascaded and cross-cascaded χ⁽³⁾ nonlinear optical interactions are studied. Investigations revealed three SRS-active phonon modes of the crystal and identified all its recorded Stokes and anti-Stokes generation lines.     

Far infrared cw raman lasing in NH3

We report evidence that two FIR laser lines generated by cw optical pumping of ¹⁴NH₃ with CO₂ laser lines are due to stimulated Raman emission instead of the usual resonant absorption-emission process.     

Millijoule pulse energy picosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplification system

The efficient generation of a 1.17-mJ laser pulse with 360 ps duration using an ytterbium (Yb)-doped fiber amplifier chain seeded by a homemade mode-locked fiber laser is demonstrated experimentally.A specially designed figure-of-eight fiber laser acts as the seed source of a chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) system and generates mode-locked pulses with hundreds of picosecond widths.Two kinds of large-mode-area (LMA) double-clad Yb-doped fibers are employed to construct the pre-amplifier and main amplifier.All of the adopted instruments help avoid severe nonlinearity in fibers to raise sub-nanosecond pulse energy with acceptable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).The output spectrum of this fiber-based CPA system shows that amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is suppressed to better than 30 dB,and the onset of stimulated Raman scattering is excluded.     

Observation of stimulated raman scattering in CVD-diamond

We report the first experimental observation of a nonlinear laser effect, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), in manmade diamond grown from the gaseous phase by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. Multiple Stokes and anti-Stokes generation in the visible and near-IR ranges was excited under nanosecond and picosecond pumping in a 350-μ-thick plate. All the registered Raman-induced lasing wavelengths were identified. We classify the CVD-diamond as a promising χ⁽³⁾-active material for Raman laser converters in a record wide spectral range.     

Control of radiation spatial coherence under synchronous amplification in crystalline LiF:F 2 − amplifier

A technique of spatial coherence control, based on the synchronous amplification of a radiation in LiF crystals with F ₂ ^? color centers, is demonstrated. Spatial radiation distributions of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in oxide crystals were investigated under picosecond laser excitation. Low spatial radiation coherence was revealed for both the transient and quasi-stationary SRS. Spatially incoherent SRS was transformed to spatially coherent radiation as a result of phase—locked picosecond synchronous laser pumping of nonlinear Raman and LiF: F ₂ ^? crystals and the Stokes radiation amplification in the color center crystal.     

Rapid shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy with a distributed feedback diode laser emitting at 785 nm

A distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode emitting at 785 nm was tested and applied as a light source for shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS). Due to the physical properties of the laser diode, it was possible to shift the emission wavelength by 8 cm^-1 (0.5 nm) required for our SERDS measurements by simply changing the injection current. The internal grating ensured single mode operation at both wavelength with the frequency stability of ±0.06 cm^-1 (0.004 nm) required for high resolution Raman spectroscopic applications. The shifted spectra were used for calculating enhanced Raman spectra being obscured by a strong scattering background. A 16 dB (≈38 fold) improvement of the signal-to-background noise S̄/σ_B was demonstrated using blackboard chalk as a sample. The tunable DFB laser is a versatile excitation source for SERDS, which could be used in any dispersive Raman system to subtract fluorescence contributions and scattering background. PACS 82.80.Gk; 42.55.-f; 42.64.Fi     

High-peak power multi-wavelength picosecond pulses generated from a BaWO4 Raman-seeded optical parametric amplifier

We report the generation of high-peak power multi-wavelength picosecond laser pulses using optical parametric amplification (OPA) in BBO seeded with pulses generated in a 5-mm length BaWO₄ crystal by stimulated Raman scattering of 18-ps laser pulses at 532 nm. The maximum output energy of the amplified first-Stokes component at 559.7 nm was about 1.76 mJ. The corresponding maximum peak power, pulse duration and spectral line width were measured to be 117.3 MW, 15 ps and 18.0 cm⁻¹, respectively. The multi-wavelength picosecond laser pulses were in the visible and near infrared ranges. Using this Raman-seeded OPA technique, the beam quality of the stimulated Raman scattering pulses can be improved.     

Efficient generation of vibrational stimulated Raman emission in the ultraviolet region using a femtosecond pump beam

The third harmonic emission (261 nm, 30 μJ) of a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser is focused into molecular hydrogen to generate vibrational stimulated Raman emission. High-order emission lines are efficiently generated by using a high-beam-quality nearly-transform-limited laser and high-pressure hydrogen (40 atm) as a Raman medium.     

Tunable picosecond transient stimulated Raman scattering in ethanol

Transient stimulated Raman scattering (TSRS) of picosecond dye laser pulses in ethanol has been investigated experimentally. In particular some temporal features of TSRS from the C-H stretching mode (2928 cm^-1) in ethanol have been studied with a Photochron II streak camera with subpicosecond time resolution. It is shown that the use of TSRS provides a simple method for producing picosecond pulses tunable over the spectral region ≈492–532 nm and 691–772 nm by tuning a passively mode-locked Rhodamine 6G dye laser from 575–630 nm.     

High efficiency picosecond pulse C6H12 Raman laser amplified by DCM fluorescence

In this paper, the Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) Stokes wave pumped by a picosecond pulse laser in cyclohexane (C₆H₁₂) enhanced by the fluorescence of 4-(Dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(p-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM) is studied in the experiment. 249 ps pulse laser from Nd:YAG laser second harmonic generation at 532 nm is used as the pumping source. The results indicate that the energy conversion efficiency is raised by the increase of the pumping energy, and the high conversion efficiency depends on the proper selection of the DCM concentration. The high energy conversion efficiency of the first Stokes enhanced by fluorescence of 37.3% is obtained. The fluorescence enhancing mechanism of the picosecond SRS Stokes wave is discussed.     

Picosecond stimulated Raman scattering of BaWO4 crystal

In single-pass configuration, a picosecond pulse laser was used to investigate the stimulated Raman scattering in different BaWO₄ crystals. Using the thresholds for the first Stokes line along the a- and c-axis, the Raman gain coefficients of the BaWO₄ crystals were calculated along their respective direction. The higher Stokes (fourth) and anti-Stokes (third) lines were observed. Compared with other well-known Raman crystals, such as KGd(WO₄)₂ and Ba(NO₃)₂, BaWO₄ has favorable properties for scattering the pump radiation with picosecond pulse duration. The Raman gain coefficients of BaWO₄ are different, but do not vary for different transmission directions, which means that this Raman material can be selected more freely.