High-power deuterium Raman laser at 632 nm

Abstract

We demonstrate a continuous-wave deuterium Raman laser that generates more than 160 mW of Stokes output power despite severe thermal effects. This output power represents nearly an order-of-magnitude increase over any previously reported continuous-wave Raman laser and is the first such system to our knowledge that uses deuterium gas as the Raman medium. The high output power is achieved through careful consideration of the electronic feedback design, frequency actuators, and pump-laser intensity noise.

Continuous-wave high-power rotational Raman generation in molecular deuterium

“…Since the pioneering work of Carlsten and colleagues [1][2][3][4] there has been a growing interest in CW Raman generation in molecular gases [5][6][7]. CW stimulated Raman scattering is achieved by placing the molecules inside a cavity with a high finesse at the pump and the generated wavelengths.…”

“…Both rotational and vibrational Stokes sideband generation has been reported with output powers typically in the 1 mW to 10 mW range [1,4]. Recently, Brasseur and colleagues have demonstrated 160 mW vibrational Stokes output power in molecular deuterium ͑D 2 ͒ [5].…”

Continuous-wave light modulation at molecular frequencies

“…Figure 2 shows the measured power after the prism in each of the three beams as the incident pump power is varied for two different gas pressures: P = 0.1 atm and P = 0.5 atm. These pressures are more than an order of magnitude lower than typical pressure values used in CW-stimulated Raman scattering [2][3][4]. For P = 0.1 atm, we observe a lasing threshold of 3 W, and for the highest incident power we generate 68 mW of Stokes, 42 mW of pump, and 41 µW of anti-Stokes light.…”

“…Our experiment builds on the pioneering work of Carlsten and colleagues, who were the first to demonstrate stimulated Raman scattering in gases with CW laser beams [2][3][4]. In stimulated Raman scattering, molecules pumped with sufficiently intense light at frequency ω p produce Stokes light at ω s = ω p − ω v , where ω v is the selected vibrational or rotational frequency of the molecule.…”

An intracavity frequency doubled H_2 Raman laser scheme for generating narrow-linewidth yellow radiation

“…Carlsten and colleagues have laid the theoretical foundation for Raman gas-based CW lasers [14,15], and high-power Raman lasers in such systems have been constructed with H 2 or D 2 pressures ranging from 0.1 atm to 10 atm [16,17]. Cavity-based SRS with diatomic gas has also been proposed as a method for the construction of molecular modulators [18] for use in ultrashort pulse generation, and experimental progress has been made toward this goal as well [19,20].…”