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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Resonance transition 795-nm rubidium laser using He buffer gas

Sheldon S. Q. Wu, Thomas F. Soules, Ralph H. Page, Scott C. Mitchell, V. Keith Kanz, Raymond John Beach

Published May 8, 2008• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Resonance transition rubidium laser (52P1/2→52S1/2) 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 3He. Using isotopically enriched 3He 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.

DOI
10.1117/12.782376

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Resonance transition rubidium laser (52P1/2→52S1/2) 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 3He. Using isotopically enriched 3He 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.
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.
An optical resonance transition rubidium laser (52P1/2 → 52S1/2) 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.
For what we believe to be the first time, an optical resonance transition rubidium laser (5(2)P(1/2)-->5(2)S(1/2)) has been 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 demonstrate all the advantages of the original alkali laser system, but without the reliability issues associated with the use of ethane.
Modulators using atomic systems are often limited in speed by the rate of spontaneous emission. One approach for overcoming this limit is to make use of a buffer gas such as Ethane, which causes rapid fine structure mixing of the P(1/2) and P(3/2) states, and broadens the absorption spectra of the D1 and D2 lines in alkali atoms. Employing this effect, we show that one can achieve high speed modulation using ladder transitions in Rubidium. We demonstrate a 100-fold increase, due to the addition of the buffer gas, in the modulation bandwidth using the 5S-5P-5D cascade system. The observed bandwidth of ~200 MHz is within a factor of 2.5 of the upper bound of ~0.51 GHz for the system used, and is limited by various practical constraints in our experiment. We also present numerical simulations for the system and predict that a much higher modulation speed should be achievable under suitable conditions. In combination with a tapered nano fiber or a SiN waveguide, it has the potential to be used for high-speed, low-power all-optical modulation.