Novel Solid-State Laser Based on Barium Nitrate Cristal pra-0106

Full Title A Novel Solid-State Laser for Eye-Safe Spectral Ranges Based on SRS in a Barium Nitrate Crystal Tech Area / Field

• PHY-OPL: Physics / Optics and Lasers

• MAT-CER: Materials / Ceramics

• OBS-NAT: Other Basic Sciences / Natural Resources and Earth Sciences

Brief Description of Technology For many years investigations on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) - conversion media have been carried out at the ILP. Crystalline barium nitrate, revealing excellent nonlinear optical parameters, was proposed as a novel medium. It provides for the efficient conversion of low energy pulses (down to ~ 100 micro J) within the nanosecond duration range with a high repetition rate (up to 16 kHz), for the simultaneous generation of five stroke components in the visible spectral range, and allows to obtain diffraction-limited conversion beams via opposite directed SRS.

We were the first to propose and develop the possibility to obtain an eye-safe laser emission of a wavelength of 1.53 micro meters, via SRS of Nd:YAG laser emission at 1.32 micro meters.

The use of SBS in barium nitrate has its advantages over traditional methods of laser emission generation in the eye-safe wavelength range. When compared to another traditional method (viz), the advantages of our method are: higher efficiency and opportunity to obtain a higher average output power.

SRS in compressed methane of an IR radiation of 1.06 microns. The advantage of our proposal lies in the simplicity of the device and its decreased size. When compared to another approach using OPO in KTP crystals, our method provides for a higher conversion efficiency. Our device is expected to be simpler and more reliable, due to the independence of the wavelength in the SRS processes from the orientation of the crystal, and due to the lower dependence of the output characteristics on the temperature. Furthermore, the cost of barium nitrate crystals is lower than that of KTP.

Legal Aspects Author certificates from the former Soviet Union.

Special Facilities in Use and Their Specifications Standard laboratory equipment and measurement techniques. Other ILP facilities (mechanical, electronic and optical laboratories) will be used for the development and construction of some of the optical components, mounts, assemblies and electronic units.

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S.N. Karpukhin and V.E. Yashin. Kvant. Elektron. (Moscow) 11, 1992 (1984) [Sov. J. Quantum Electron. 14, 1337 (1984)].

S.N. Karpukhin, A.A. Nikitichev. Technical digest of the VI. Soviet Conference on Laser Optics, (Leningrad), 1990, p.311.

S.N. Karpukhin, Technical digest of the CLEO/European Conference, (Hamburg), CWG5, (1996).

V.N. Voitsekhovskii, S.N. Karpukhin, V.E. Yakobson. J. Opt. Technol. 62 (11), p.770, (1995).