The present work is devoted to basic research of vapor-gas active media (SrI, SrII, Ne, and He) of lasers with nanosecond lasing pulses. Results of systematic investigations of a strontium vapor laser are presented for a wide range of conditions: pulse repetition frequency f = 1-100 kHz, buffer gas (neon or helium) pressure P = 30-400 Torr, volume of the active medium 200-600 cm³, etc. A number of record characteristics were achieved (average output power of 22 W, pulse repetition frequency of 100 kHz, and energy per lasing pulse of 2 mJ), lasing was simultaneously excited on the r-m and m-m transitions, and lasing in recombination and ionization modes was obtained in one active element. For the first time, lasing lines on many He and Ne atom transitions were obtained together with self-terminated Sr atom and ion lasing lines. Operation of a laser on self-terminated transitions of strontium atoms (6.45 μm) and singly charged ions (1.03 and 1.09 μm) in the modified mode (excitation of the active medium by pulse trains with high repetition frequency) was investigated. It was demonstrated that in this case, the strontium vapor laser pulse repetition frequency at wavelengths of 1.03 and 1.09 μm could reach ~1 MHz. In the present work, a number of advanced high-precision laser technologies based on application of the multiwavelength strontium vapor laser is considered, including precision controlled laser thermal cleavage of fragile nonmetallic materials, infrared laser resonant ablation, etc.

Date Published: 15 November 2010
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 7751, XVIII International Symposium on Gas Flow, Chemical Lasers, and High-Power Lasers, 77510C (15 November 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.881003

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7751:
XVIII International Symposium on Gas Flow, Chemical Lasers, and High-Power Lasers
Tanja Dreischuh; Petar A. Atanasov; Nikola V. Sabotinov, Editor(s)