Continuous Operation of a Solid-State Optical Maser

Abstract

Experiments demonstrating continuous operation of a solid-state optical maser are described. A continuous coherent wave at 1.065 \ensuremath{\mu} is obtained from trivalent neodymium in CaW${\mathrm{O}}_{4}$, operating at about 85\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K. At room temperature a continuous wave at 1.058 \ensuremath{\mu} is obtained. Room temperature operation is possible due to the large splitting between the terminal state of the maser transition and the ground state (\ensuremath{\sim}2000 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$). Near threshold power output \ensuremath{\sim}10 mw is observed, using silver coatings only.