Frequency conversion of cw chemical HF laser radiation in nonlinear crystals

Abstract

A description is given of a cw chemical HF laser and its characteristics. The results are reported of investigations of the efficiency of conversion of the HF laser radiation into second harmonics and combination frequencies in LiNbO3, LiIO3, and Ag3AsS3 crystals. The most efficient conversion was achieved in proustite (Ag3AsS3) when the second-harmonic power was ~3μW and the fundamentalfrequency power was ~ 100 mW. Twenty-one emission lines were obtained in the 1.39–1.49 μ range. The HF laser radiation was converted to the visible range (0.522–0.516 μ).