Stark effect on CH3OH and CH3F FIR lasers: Large frequency tuning and resolved structures

The operation of a cw FIR laser in the presence of a strong electric field is described. A hybrid metal-dielectric waveguide is used and the cavity length is scanned to study how the frequency and power of the laser depend on the field strength. The results have also been checked by heterodyning with a conventional reference laser. We report the results obtained for the 496 μm line of CH₃F and the 70.5 μm and 119 μm lines of CH₃OH. A large frequency tunability of almost ±40 MHz is obtained in the best case with power levels in the mW range. A very simple theoretical model accounts for the experimental results. We also report the appearance of a new FIR line at about 204 μm when CH₃OH is pumped by the 9 μmP(34) of CO₂ in the presence of an electric field larger than 1.2 KV/cm.