A tunable picosecond IR laser generating multi-megawatt pulses in the range 3–8 m

We describe a versatile infrared laser system capable of generating picosecond pulses continuously tunable over the wavelength range 3.3–8.4 μm, with peak powers of 1–20 MW. The IR pulse duration is ～1.3 ps with a time-bandwidth product of ～0.3. The system uses stimulated electronic Raman scattering (SERS) in caesium vapour to shift the frequency of a picosecond dye laser into the infrared. The quantum efficiency of the Raman conversion process exceeds 40% over almost the entire tuning range. This technique can be extended to other tuning ranges in the IR by using different atomic vapours and SERS transitions.