Continuously tunable diamond Raman laser for resonance laser ionization.

Area of Science:

• Solid-state laser development
• Nonlinear optics
• Spectroscopic instrumentation

Background:

• Diamond Raman lasers offer a promising platform for generating tunable laser light.
• Existing methods often face limitations in efficiency, tunability, or stability.
• All-solid-state laser sources are desirable for practical spectroscopic applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a highly efficient and tunable diamond Raman laser.
• To investigate the transfer of pump laser properties to the Stokes output.
• To assess the potential of this laser system for spectroscopic applications.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a wavelength-tunable intracavity frequency-doubled titanium sapphire (Ti:Sapphire) laser as the pump source.
• Employed a diamond Raman resonator for generating the Stokes output at 479 nm.
• Characterized the laser output for tunability, stability, conversion efficiency, and beam quality (M²).

Main Results:

• Achieved a continuously tunable diamond Raman laser with a linewidth of approximately 5 GHz.
• Obtained a high conversion efficiency of 28% and excellent beam quality (M²<1.2).
• Demonstrated direct transfer of pump laser linewidth and tunability to the Stokes output.

Conclusions:

• Diamond Raman lasers can be highly efficient and tunable sources.
• The developed laser system exhibits excellent stability and beam quality.
• This all-solid-state diamond Raman laser holds significant potential for spectroscopic applications like resonance laser ionization.