Abstract
The development of high-power laser sources with narrow emission, tunable within the water transmission window around 1.7 μm, is of interest for applications as diverse as medical imaging and atmospheric sensing. Where suitable laser gain media are not available, operation in this spectral region is often achieved via nonlinear frequency conversion, and optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) are a common solution. A practical alternative to OPOs, to avoid birefringent- or quasi-phase-matching requirements, is the use of stimulated Raman scattering within a suitable material to convert a pump source to longer wavelengths via one or more Stokes shifts; however, as this is a χ(3) nonlinear process, such frequency conversion is usually the preserve of high-energy pulsed lasers. Semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs), on the other hand, have very high-finesse external resonators, suitable for efficient intracavity nonlinear conversion even in continuous-wave (CW) operation. Here we report, to the best of our knowledge, the first continuous-wave third-Stokes crystalline Raman laser and the longest emission wavelength from an SDL-pumped Raman laser, achieving high power, CW output, and broad wavelength tuning around 1.73 μm. The KGd(WO4)2 (KGW) Raman laser, which was intracavity-pumped by a 1.18 μm InGaAs-based SDL, demonstrated cascaded CW Stokes oscillation at 1.32 μm, 1.50 μm, and 1.73 μm with watt-level output achievable at each wavelength. The 1.73 μm Stokes emission was diffraction limited (M2<1.01) and narrow linewidth (<46 pm FWHM; measurement limited). By rotation of a birefringent filter placed within the fundamental resonator, we attained three tunable emission wavelength bands, one centred at each Stokes component, and achieved up to 65 nm tuning for the third-Stokes Raman laser from 1696 nm to 1761 nm. We have thus demonstrated a platform laser technology that takes well-developed InGaAs-based SDLs and provides spectral coverage and high performance in the near-infrared water transmission windows using commercially available components.
Highlights
Laser operation between 1.4 μm and 1.8 μm is of interest for gas sensing [1], light detection and ranging [2], and for medical imaging applications, e.g., optical coherence tomography (OCT) [3,4]
The expanding number of applications of semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs), known as vertical-external-cavity surfaceemitting lasers (VECSELs) [7], stems from their unique combination of laser properties, such as [8]: custom emission wavelength enabled by III-V semiconductor bandgap engineering, with broad tunability; output power at the multi-watt level with low noise and excellent beam quality; and suitability for short pulse mode locking or ultra-narrow linewidth single-frequency operation
SDLs typically consist of a multiquantum-well (QW) gain region monolithically grown on top of a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR), which serves as the end mirror in an external laser resonator
Summary
Laser operation between 1.4 μm and 1.8 μm (the “eye-safe” region) is of interest for gas sensing [1], light detection and ranging (lidar) [2], and for medical imaging applications, e.g., optical coherence tomography (OCT) [3,4]. KGW has previously been investigated for cascaded Raman laser generation in the visible and near-IR via pumping with Q-switched lasers [21,28,29]; no CW demonstration at the third-Stokes has so far been reported, as pump power of several hundreds of Watts is required. Such power is readily achieved within the cavity of a diode-pumped SDL. Tuning of the SDL oscillation wavelength resulted in broad tuning of each Raman laser, with up to 65 nm tuning achieved for the third-Stokes Raman laser from 1696 nm to 1761 nm
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