Parametric study of a room-temperature metal vapor laser

Abstract

We have demonstrated laser operation at room temperature on the Cui (511,578 nm) and Aui (312,628 nm) transitions and obtained specific pulse energies for the Cui 511 nm and Aui 628 nm lines of about 5 and 2 μJ cm−3, respectively, from a single-section tube. A simple theoretical model has been used to show that the reduced outputs for the Cui 578 nm and Aui 312 nm lines are due to the significantly smaller fraction of the working volume in saturation in each case. The metal vapor column of length 20 cm and local ground-state concentration in the 1014–1015 cm−3 range is produced on demand in a single-section tube in less than 10 ms. The highest output power obtained is for a 90% He in an Ar/He mixture at a total flowrate of 1.8 ℓ min−1, the tube pressure being 20 mbar. A specific sputtering discharge energy of approximately 600 mJ cm−3 is needed to obtain a peak power of 1 kW on either the Cui 511 nm or Aui 628 nm lines.