Title

Demonstration of a diode-pumped metastable Ar laser

Authors

Authors

J. D. Han; L. Glebov; G. Venus;M. C. Heaven

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Opt. Lett.

Keywords

795-NM RUBIDIUM LASER; CONTINUOUS-WAVE; VAPOR LASER; POWER; CS; EXCITATION; ATOMS; MODEL; GAS; Optics

Abstract

Pulsed lasing from optically pumped rare gas metastable atoms (Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) has been demonstrated previously. The laser relies on a three-level scheme, which involves the (n + 1)p[5/2](3) and (n + 1)p[1/2](1) states from the np(5)(n + 1)p electronic configuration and the metastable (n + 1)s[3/2](2) level of the np(5)(n + 1)s configuration (Racah notation). Population inversions were achieved using relaxation from ((n + 1)p[5/2](3) to (n + 1)p[1/2](1) induced by collisions with helium or argon at pressures near 1 atm. Pulsed lasing was easily achieved using the high instantaneous pump intensities provided by a pulsed optical parametric oscillator excitation laser. In the present study we examine the potential for the development of a continuous wave (CW) optically pumped Ar laser. We report lasing of the 4p[1/2](1) - > 4s[3/2](2) (912.547 nm) transition following CW diode laser excitation of the 4p[5/2](3) - > 4s[3/2](2) line (811.754 nm). A pulsed discharge was used to generate Ar 4s[3/2](2), and the time-resolved lasing kinetics provide insights concerning the radiative and collisional relaxation processes. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America

Journal Title

Optics Letters

Volume

38

Issue/Number

24

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

5458

Last Page

5461

WOS Identifier

WOS:000328702100067

ISSN

0146-9592

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