The goal of our research is a compact Raman laser emitting short pulses with high energy and peak power in “eye-safe" region around wavelength 1.5 μm. We utilize intracavity conversion of giant pulses at wavelength 1.34 μm in a BaWO₄ Raman crystal (18 mm long, AR coated). Required high energy and peak power was reached using a flash-lamp pumped Nd:YAG laser (rod 100 mm long, diameter 4 mm), Q-switched by V:YAG solid-state saturable absorber (initial transmission 37% @ 1.34 μm). The L-shaped oscillator for 1.34 μm radiation consisted of a concave mirror (r = 0.5 m, HR @ 1.3 μm, HT @ 1.06 μm), flat polarizing intracavity mirror, and output coupler (r = 1 m, HR @ 1.3 μm, R = 39 % @ 1.5 μm). The polarizing mirror ensured stable linearly polarized laser emission and prevented parasitic oscillations at 1.06 μm. The Raman laser oscillator was formed by the output coupler and another intracavity mirror (r = 0.5 m, HR @ 1.5 μm, HT @ 1.3 μm), inserted between BaWO₄ and the polarizing mirror. For pumping energy of 28.2 J stable vertically polarized generation of the 1st Stokes radiation at 1528 nm was reached. In multimode operation the output energy was 20 mJ in 2.25 ns pulses. Single mode operation was possible by inserting a 1.5 mm aperture between Nd:YAG and V:YAG crystal. The output energy dropped to 9.7 mJ (even for higher pump power of 30.7 W) and output pulses were shortened to 1.87 ns.

Date Published: 6 March 2013
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 8599, Solid State Lasers XXII: Technology and Devices, 85991W (6 March 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2002305

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8599:
Solid State Lasers XXII: Technology and Devices
W. Andrew Clarkson; Ramesh Shori, Editor(s)