Efficient nanosecond barium nitrate Raman laser for the visible spectral range

Area of Science:

• Laser Physics
• Nonlinear Optics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Solid-state Raman lasers offer tunable wavelength generation.
• Efficiently generating specific Stokes orders is crucial for various applications.
• Barium nitrate is a promising material for Raman scattering.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and characterize solid-state Raman lasers.
• To investigate the performance of barium nitrate crystals in Raman lasers.
• To evaluate the potential of these lasers for differential absorption LiDAR.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm as the pump source.
• Employed barium nitrate crystals (3 cm and 5 cm lengths) in semi-spherical resonators.
• Measured output pulse energies, conversion efficiencies, and beam quality factors (M²).

Main Results:

• Achieved first Stokes (563 nm) and second Stokes (598 nm) radiation.
• Obtained maximum pulse energies of 2.3 mJ.
• Reached conversion efficiencies up to 35% (first Stokes) and 21% (second Stokes).
• Demonstrated superior beam quality with M² values of 1.67 and 1.83.

Conclusions:

• The developed solid-state Raman lasers exhibit high efficiency and excellent beam quality.
• The design is effective for generating first and second Stokes radiation.
• The laser output is well-suited for subsequent frequency doubling for differential absorption LiDAR (DIAL) applications.