Eye-safe diamond Raman laser

Abstract

Stimulated Raman scattering, as a third-order nonlinear effect, is an effective approach to expand the laser spectral region. To obtain a high power output of a Raman laser with a specific wavelength, novel Raman gain media and laser structures have been continuously studied, and in recent years, diamonds have received an increased interest from researchers owing to their extremely high Raman gain coefficient, high thermal conductivity, and wide transmission spectrum. Diamond Raman lasers (DRLs) have enabled the achievement of a laser input in the visible to the mid-infrared band. In particular, lasers with outputs in the 1.5 μm band have the characteristics of an atmospheric window and being eye-safe, which are critical for applications in the medical, distance measurement, radar, and other such domains. Consequently, researchers are constantly improving the methods to output a higher power laser at 1.5 μm, and the DRLs offer the potential to realize a high power and high beam quality in this band. This paper provides a review of the research status of eye-safe DRLs and suggests opportunities for future development and applications.