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Optics Letters

Resonance transition 795-nm rubidium laser

William F. Krupke, Raymond John Beach, V. Keith Kanz, Stephen A. Payne

Published Dec 1, 2003• 302 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Population inversion of the 2P 1/2 and 2S 1/2 levels and continuous-wave, three-level laser oscillation at 795 nm on the D1 transition of the rubidium atom has been demonstrated. Using a titanium sapphire laser as a pump source, we obtained a slope power efficiency of 54% relative to absorbed pump power, consistent with homogeneous broadening of the rubidium pump and laser transitions. The end-pumped rubidium laser performance was well described by use of literature spectroscopic and kinetic data in a model that takes into account ground-level depletion and a pump spectral bandwidth that is substantially larger than the collisionally broadened pump transition spectral width.

DOI
10.1364/ol.28.002336

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Laser Generation without Population Inversion in the Red Wing of the $${D}_{1}$$-Line of Alkali Metal Atoms under Resonant Diode Pumping

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A new method of laser radiation generation without population inversion in the red wing of the $$D_{1}$$ -line of alkali metal atoms under resonant absorption of broadband radiation of pump laser diodes at the $$D_{1}$$ transition is studied theoretically. The appearance of laser generation is caused by the fact that the probability of stimulated emission in the red wing of the spectral line exceeds the probability of absorption if homogeneous broadening due to interaction between active particles and the buffer gas significantly exceeds the natural broadening (under high pressures of the buffer gas). Analytical formulas representing the operation of a transversely diode-pumped alkali metal vapor laser are obtained. It is found that cesium atoms are the most promising object for observation of laser generation without population inversion in the red wing of the $$D_{1}$$ -line of alkali metal atoms. In a sufficiently long active medium (the length of the medium is 50 times its width), the efficiency of pumping radiation conversion into laser radiation can reach 57% at a buffer gas pressure of 5 atm, a pump diode radiation intensity of 5 kW/cm $${}^{2}$$ , and a half-width of its spectrum of 1 cm $${}^{-1}$$ . The laser radiation frequency can be tuned by several tens of cm $${}^{-1}$$ .

Optoelectronics Instrumentation and Data Processing•Dec 1, 2023•0 citations
Population inversion of the 2P 1/2 and 2S 1/2 levels and continuous-wave, three-level laser oscillation at 795 nm on the D1 transition of the rubidium atom has been demonstrated. Using a titanium sapphire laser as a pump source, we obtained a slope power efficiency of 54% relative to absorbed pump power, consistent with homogeneous broadening of the rubidium pump and laser transitions. The end-pumped rubidium laser performance was well described by use of literature spectroscopic and kinetic data in a model that takes into account ground-level depletion and a pump spectral bandwidth that is substantially larger than the collisionally broadened pump transition spectral width.
A continuous-wave, three-level rubidium atom laser, operating on the 795 nm first (D1) resonance transition, has been demonstrated for the first time. Using a Titanium Sapphire laser as a pump source, a slope power efficiency of 54% was obtained, consistent with homogeneous broadening of the rubidium pump and laser transitions. The end-pumped rubidium laser performance was well described using literature spectroscopic and kinetic data in a model that takes into account ground level depletion and pump spectral bandwidth that is substantially larger than the collisionally broadened pump transition spectral width.
Abstract : An optically pumped mid-infrared rubidium (Rb) pulsed laser has been demonstrated in a heat pipe along the 62P3/2 - 62S1/2 transition at 2.730 micrometer and the 62P1/2 - 62S1/2 transition at 2.790 micrometer. The bleached limit, slope efficiency, and maximum laser output energy of the mid-IR Rb laser have been shown to scale linearly with increasing Rb density, contrary to prior laser demonstrations. A maximum output energy of 5 nJ per pulse had previously been observed before a rollover occurred in the scaling of output energy with Rb concentration. In this experiment, the maximum laser output energy observed was 100 nJ, with linear scaling to a Rb concentration of 7 x 10 to the 15th power cm-3. A maximum slope efficiency of 1.7 x 0.0001 was observed. Evidence that only a small percentage (2%) of the available pump photons were absorbed at a concentration of 2 x 10 to the 15th power cm-3 and a pump energy of 10 (mu)J. This indicated that there were 20,000 pump photons per Rb atom at a pump energy of 10 mJ, and that the effective laser efficiency was 0.65 percent or higher. The hyperfine structure and absorption spectral profile of the 52S1/2 - 62P1/2 and 52S1/2 - 62P3/2 (blue) pump transitions were studied using a continuous wave (cw) pump source.
Abstract : The Doppler-broadened two-photon absorption (TPA) cross-section for the 52S1/2- 52D5/2 transition in Rb is measured using direct absorption methods. A detailed model of the intensity profile was developed to account for a focused Gaussian beam propagating through a two-photon absorption medium. A peak absorbance of 24% was observed for an intensity of 6.28 kW/cm2 at the focus, a Rb density of 4.6 x 1015 cm-3 concentrations from 1.61-8.52 x 10(15) cm-3 line. Extracting the hyperfine-broadened TPA cross-section from 87 test configurations, while varying the pump power, alkali concentration and focal length, yielded an error weighted average of 6.75x10-21 cm4/W. This cross-section is sufficient for a pulsed dye laser to bleach the pump transition in the Two-Photon Pumped Alkali Laser (TPAL) that lases at 420 nm and 5.2 mum. Additionally, optically pumped atomic rubidium lasers pumped in the blue satellite of the D2 line from the ground Rb-Ar or Rb-Kr collision pair to the dissociative B2 sum 1/2 produce laser emission at 780.2 nm. Lasing is achieved for the Rb-Ar system and 757.1 - 760.4 nm for the Rb-Kr system. Slope efficiencies exceed 0.25% using a heat pipe configuration. The gain is very high with photon build-up times of 1-3.7 ns.
Resonance transition rubidium laser (5 2 P 1/2 →5 2 S 1/2 ) is demonstrated with a hydrocarbon-free buffer gas.Prior demonstrations of alkali resonance transition lasers have used ethane as either the buffer gas or a buffer gas component to promote rapid fine-structure mixing.However, our experience suggests that the alkali vapor reacts with the ethane producing carbon as one of the reaction products.This degrades long term laser reliability.Our recent experimental results with a "clean" helium-only buffer gas system pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser demonstrate all the advantages of the original alkali laser system, but without the reliability issues associated with the use of ethane.We further report a demonstration of a rubidium laser using a buffer gas consisting of pure 3 He.Using isotopically enriched 3 He gas yields enhanced mixing of the Rb fine-structure levels.This enables efficient lasing at reduced He buffer gas pressure, improved thermal management in high average power Rb lasers and enhanced power scaling potential of such systems.
In the recent years, alkali vapor lasers have become the most promising candidates for realization of a light source with both good beam quality and high output power because of their excellent performances. A rubidium laser is a typical kind of alkali vapor lasers. In this study, we developed a theoretical mode to evaluate the population densities of three levels as well as mode-matching efficiency of a rubidium laser pumped by a narrow-linewidth Ti:Sapphire laser under two different focal conditions. In the evaluation, at least two values of the output power of a rubidium laser must be known, which are usually obtained from the experiment. We performed a series of experiments by using two pump lenses with two focal lengths of 150 and 200 mm, and acquired two corresponding values of the laser output power. Then, we applied the experimental results in the theoretical calculation and then obtained the population densities of three levels and mode-matching efficiency of the rubidium laser. The study demonstrates that the outputted pump power can be used for evaluation of the population densities of three levels and mode-matching efficiency of an alkali laser under the different experimental conditions. The study might be valuable to better understand the physical features of an alkali vapor laser and to optimize the configuration of a high-powered alkali laser in the future.
Laser Generation without Population Inversion in the Red Wing of the D1{D}_{1}D1​-Line of Alkali Metal Atoms under Resonant Diode Pumping
A new method of laser radiation generation without population inversion in the red wing of the D1D_{1}D1​ -line of alkali metal atoms under resonant absorption of broadband radiation of pump laser diodes at the D1D_{1}D1​ transition is studied theoretically. The appearance of laser generation is caused by the fact that the probability of stimulated emission in the red wing of the spectral line exceeds the probability of absorption if homogeneous broadening due to interaction between active particles and the buffer gas significantly exceeds the natural broadening (under high pressures of the buffer gas). Analytical formulas representing the operation of a transversely diode-pumped alkali metal vapor laser are obtained. It is found that cesium atoms are the most promising object for observation of laser generation without population inversion in the red wing of the D1D_{1}D1​ -line of alkali metal atoms. In a sufficiently long active medium (the length of the medium is 50 times its width), the efficiency of pumping radiation conversion into laser radiation can reach 57% at a buffer gas pressure of 5 atm, a pump diode radiation intensity of 5 kW/cm 2{}^{2}2 , and a half-width of its spectrum of 1 cm −1{}^{-1}−1 . The laser radiation frequency can be tuned by several tens of cm −1{}^{-1}−1 .