High-power tunable IR Raman lasers

Physical principles, new ways and means of creation, schemes, characteristics and features of efficient high-power tunable pulse Raman lasers, operating in the near and middle ir are reviewed. The paper includes: tunable dye and Nd lasers as pump sources; promising active media and their optimal excitation methods; optical systems for producing spatially homogeneous pumping; the physics of Raman oscillators and their practical schemes, efficient high pulse energy liquid N₂ and compressed H₂ Raman oscillators, covering several bands in the range between 1.4 and 9.2 μm; the physics and construction of efficient tunable Raman amplifiers-convertors, amplifying in the saturation regime of spontaneously scattered or beforehand produced and collimated external Stokes signals, obtained in the spectral range between 0.83 μm and 18 μm. Raman laser using a, so-called, broadband pump where the linewidth of pumping light is broader than the spontaneous scattering linewidth, are also discussed. Features of both amplification and oscillation regimes of such broadband pumped Raman lasers are reported, and conditions for the efficient frequency conversion are determined.     

Continuous-wave broadly tunable Cr:ZnSe laser pumped by a thulium fiber laser

We describe a compact, broadly tunable, continuous-wave (cw) Cr²⁺:ZnSe laser pumped by a thulium fiber laser at 1800 nm. In the experiments, a polycrystalline ZnSe sample with a chromium concentration of 9.5 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ was used. Free-running laser output was around 2500 nm. Output couplers with transmissions of 3%, 6%, and 15% were used to characterize the power performance of the laser. Best power performance was obtained with a 15% transmitting output coupler. In this case, as high as 640 mW of output power was obtained with 2.5 W of pump power at a wavelength of 2480 nm. The stimulated emission cross-section values determined from laser threshold data and emission measurements were in good agreement. Finally, broad, continuous tuning of the laser was demonstrated between 2240 and 2900 nm by using an intracavity Brewster cut MgF₂ prism and a single set of optics.     

Very narrow-bandwidth tunable infrared difference frequency generation with injection-locked dye lasers

Two flashlamp pumped dye lasers of very high spectral quality are mixed in a LiIO₃ crystal to generate a tunable infrared beam through the difference frequency mixing. Thanks to the injection-locking process of the pulsed dye lasers leading to a linewidth of 6 MHz with peak powers of about 10 kW, we obtain an IR beam tunable from 3.5 to 5.9 m with a peak power of 40 W and a linewidth of 9 MHz. As an application we present a spectrum of N₂O obtained by differential absorption near 1880 cm^–1. The lines of thisQ-branch are Doppler limited at the working pressure (10² Pa).     

A subpicosecond dye laser pumped by a xenon ion laser

A pulsed xenon ion laser has been used to pump a rhodamine 6G dye laser utilizing a ring resonator. The dye laser has been passively mode-locked; a pulsewidth of 0.5 ps and a 50 kW peak power have been obtained.Work partly supported by Italian C.N.R.     

High-power tunable IR Raman and optically pumped molecular lasers for spectroscopy

Recent developments of tunable IR compressed-H₂ and liquid-N₂ Raman Lasers as well as resonantly pumped NH₃ lasers are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on research carried out at the Quantum Radiophysics Laboratory of the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow. Paper was prepared for presentation at FICOLS     

New far-infrared laser lines from CH3Cl and CH3Br optically pumped with a continuously tunable high pressure CO2 laser

In this paper we report on the detection of new far-infrared laser lines from CH₃Cl and CH₃Br optically pumped with a continuously tunable high pressure CO₂ laser. We found 80 new lines for CH₃Cl and 9 new lines for CH₃Br in the frequency region between 16 cm^–1 and 41 cm^–1, all due to stimulated Raman scattering. For the Raman gain regions bandwidths up to about 700 MHz were found. We also observed high intensity short far-infrared laser pulses of durations in the nanosecond regime.Permanent address: Physics Department, State Pedagogical University, SU-119435 Moscow, USSR     

High-energy dye laser pumped by wall-ablation lamps

A guideline for the optimum design of linear wall-ablation lamps is presented with a simple empirical formula which describes the luminescent characteristics of lamps. The absolute luminescent efficiency of the wall-ablation lamp was measured. A high-energy dye laser with a quadruple-elliptical cylindrical cavity was constructed using these lamps, and an output energy of 23.3 J (11.6 MW) was obtained with an overall efficiency of 0.31 %. The energy-flow diagram of this laser system was computed with a rate-equation analysis, and the conversion efficiency from electrical input to laser output was determined. One can expect an overall efficiency of about 2 %.     

Highly efficient Raman conversion in O2 pumped by a seeded narrow band second-harmonic Nd:YAG laser

The first-Stokes conversion efficiency for a stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is usually very low in gaseous oxygen media. In 3.0 Mpa O₂, a single longitudinal mode second harmonic Nd:YAG laser pump source gives a typical vibrational first-Stokes conversion efficiency of only 2.5%, In comparison, the accompanying stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) attains a reflectivity of 67%. However, by seeding an OPO beam into the Raman cavity, the first-Stokes photon conversion efficiency now attains a peak value of 54%, while the SBS reflectivity reduces to 5% in a 6.1 Mpa 41:59 O₂/ He mixture. This 54% efficiency was obtained for a seeder laser pulse-width less than one half that of pump laser (6.8 ns). A first-Stokes peak power conversion efficiency as high as 88% has been obtained when the pump and seeder pulse peaks coincide. So, we may expect a higher first-Stokes photon conversion efficiency if the seeder pulse-width can be made equal to or larger than that of the pump pulse. On the other hand, the beam quality of the first-Stokes in an O₂/ He mixture excels that of the pump laser for a seeder energy of 5 mJ and pump energy of 50 mJ. However, at pump energies higher than 105 mJ and a pump laser repetition rate of 10 Hz, the thermal defocusing effect worsens the first-Stokes beam quality. This thermal defocusing effect is a result of the Raman heat release and could be eliminated by fast circulating and cooling the Raman gas medium.     

A one joule,XeCl pumped dye laser

A 4 J XeCl (308 nm) laser has been used to produce 1 J of dye laser output from selected dyes whose lasing wavelengths sample the spectral range from 330 to 600 nm.     

Generation of tunable sub-picosecond pulses in the UV with a travelling wave dye laser

Received: 22 June 1998/Revised version: 3 August 1998     

Intrapulse thermally induced wavelength shift in a distributed feedback dye laser

It is shown that when a distributed feedback dye laser is used to generate a train of picosecond pulses, the narrow lines observed in the spectrum are not longitudinal modes, but are due to the intrapulse refractive index changes caused by the heating effect of the pumping pulse.     

New FIR laser lines from CD3OD optically pumped by a CO2 waveguide laser

In this work we report new FIR laser lines from CD₃OD optically pumped by a CO₂ waveguide laser. The wide tunability of this laser (290 MHz) makes it possible to pump absorption lines with large frequency offset relative to the CO₂ laser line center, which are not possible by using conventional CO₂ lasers. As a consequence 19 new laser lines have been discovered, ranging from 38.0 m to 455.2 m in wavelength. For all lines, precise frequency offset measurements between the CO₂ line center and the center of the absorber CD₃OD line were performed using the transferred Lamb-dip technique. We also present direct Doppler-free offset measurements of infrared absorption, obtained within the FIR laser cavity itself, using optoacoustic detection.Work supported by FAPESP, CNPq, FAP-Brasil and CNR-Italy     

Pulse formation in synchronously pumped infrared dye lasers

Pulse formation in synchronously pumped dye lasers with fast relaxing dyes is treated by computer simulation. The influence of spontaneous emission and chirp, as well as cavity mismatch, on the pulse characteristics and stability of generation are discussed.     

The generation of tunable near IR radiation using a nitrogen laser pumped dye laser

Excitation transfer between the two components of a dye mixture has allowed a near IR dye laser to be pumped by a nitrogen laser. Several dye mixtures were employed to achieve lasing at all wavelengths within the range 6400–7720 Å. The output pulse powers were in excess of 10 kW over most of this range.     

Characteristics of a hybridly mode-locked cw dye laser

We present experimental and theoretical results on the characteristics and random variations of subpicosecond pulses generated by a synchronously pumped cw dye laser with saturable absorber. The analysis of the power spectra indicates rapid fluctuations of the pulse duration of 40–50%, energy fluctuations of 3%, and a jitter of the repetition time of 0.1% corresponding to an absolute jitter of 12 ps. The latter is caused mainly by the temporal jitter of the pump laser. A mismatch of the lengths of the dye and the pump-laser cavity can result in a nonstationary mode-locking regime with a periodic change of the pulse parameters. The interpretation of the experimental results are supported by computer simulations of the pulse evolution process.     

An oscillator-amplifier distributed feedback dye laser system,pumped by a single TEA N2 laser

In this paper we describe a simple and inexpensive Distributed Feedback Dye Laser (DFDL) system for picosecond pulse generation. This system consists of an oscillator-amplifier DFDL, either in the grating or in the prism configuration: both stages are pumped by a single TEA nitrogen laser with improved beam quality. Single pulses having duration of 26 ps are obtained at a frequency up to 100Hz; the overall pulse-to-pulse stability is, at the maximum frequency, of about 25%. This system is particularly well-suited for time-resolved fluorescence microscopy studies where short tunable laser pulses of low energy are required.     

A high-power subpicosecond distributed feedback dye laser system pumped by a mode-locked Nd: YAG laser

The design and operation characteristics of a distributed feedback dye laser (DFDL) system pumped by the second harmonic of a flashlamp pumped mode-locked Nd: YAG laser are described. The DFDL oscillator facilitates a large tuning range with nearly Fourier limited pulse durations of about 1.6 ps. The combined action of saturated absorption and amplification results in a pulse shortening to about 600 fs, with small fluctuations in the pulse duration. Output pulse energies of more than 400 J are achieved, corresponding to a peak power of more than 650 MW. Since the dye amplifiers are pumped by pulses of only 25 ps duration the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is very low, typically less than 10^–4.     

Generaton of tunable 16 μm radiation by stimulated hyper-raman effect in strontium vapour

The generation of tunable 16 μm radiation by stimulated hyper-Raman scattering from atomic strontium vapour is reported. The infrared radiation has a linewidth of 0.4 cm⁻¹ which corresponds to that of the nitrogen laser pumped dye laser used as a pump source. Due to relatively low pump intensity the infrared power was only 20 mW. However, the system is easily scalable to a higher conversion efficiency.     

N2 laser frequency conversion by stimulated Raman scattering in H2

High-efficiency frequency conversion in H₂ of a nitrogen laser oscillator-amplifier system is described. The laser system provides about 1 MW output power with a very low intrinsic divergence. Up to 3 Stokes lines at 392, 468, and 581 nm and 3 Anti-Stokes at 296, 263, and 237 nm, respectively, have been observed at the output of the 60 cm long H₂ Raman cell. Peak power values of 500, 300, and 70 kW have been measured for the first 3 Stokes, respectively, corresponding to a 56% pump energy conversion efficiency.A comparison between free and guided propagation (in a hollow dielectric waveguide) is also reported, for various values of the pump intrinsic divergence.     

Theory of the synchronously pumped picosecond dye laser

The circulation of a synchronously mode locked dye laser pulse in a linear cavity configuration containing a dye cell as an active medium and a bandwidth-limiting element is treated. The condition that the pulse shape reproduces after each cavity round-trip provides a nonlinear integro-differential equation for the steady-state pulse shape. For the solution of this equation an approximate method, not limited to small pulse energies, is given and the pulse duration, intensity, energy, asymmetry of the pulse shape, stable regions and other interesting parameters are discussed.