Continuous-wave alexandrite laser pumped by a direct-current mercury arc lamp

Area of Science:

• Laser Physics
• Optical Engineering

Background:

• Continuous-wave (cw) alexandrite lasers require stable pumping sources.
• Conventional mercury arc lamps suffer from fluctuations due to liquid mercury pools.
• These fluctuations limit laser performance and stability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a fluctuation-free mercury arc lamp for pumping cw alexandrite lasers.
• To improve the stability and efficiency of laser pumping systems.
• To enable higher power and more reliable laser operation.

Main Methods:

• Designing a mercury arc lamp with thermally insulated cathode.
• Achieving fully vaporized direct-current operation at 4 kW.
• Eliminating liquid mercury pools within the lamp tube.
• Utilizing the developed lamp to pump a cw alexandrite laser.

Main Results:

• A novel fluctuation-free mercury arc lamp was successfully developed.
• The lamp operates stably at 4 kW with fully vaporized mercury.
• Fluctuations inherent to liquid mercury pools were completely avoided.
• A 17-W cw alexandrite laser was successfully pumped by the new lamp.

Conclusions:

• The developed mercury arc lamp provides a stable and reliable pumping source for cw alexandrite lasers.
• This advancement overcomes limitations of conventional lamps, enabling improved laser performance.
• The new lamp design is crucial for applications requiring stable, high-power laser output.