Competing Inversion-Based Lasing and Raman Lasing in Doped Silicon
S. G. Pavlov, Nils Dessmann, Britta Redlich +6 more
We report on an optically pumped laser where photons are simultaneously generated by population inversion and by stimulated Raman scattering in the same active medium, namely crystalline silicon doped by bismuth (Si∶Bi).The medium utilizes three electronic levels: ground state [j1i: 1sðA 1 Þ in Si∶Bi], upper [j3i: 2p Æ ] and lower [j2i: 1sðEÞ] laser levels.The j1i ↔ j3i and j2i ↔ j3i transitions are optically allowed and the j1i ↔ j2i transition is Raman active.Lasing based on population inversion occurs between the states j3i and j2i, while Raman scattering benefits from the Raman-active transition.At high pump power the inversion-based stimulated emission j3i → j2i disappears, because electronic scattering from j1i to j2i via a virtual state dominates and the electrons are excited into j2i rather than into j3i.Starting as population inversion-based lasing, it ends as stimulated Raman scattering.Our model shows that such a competition occurs on the timescale of the 10-ps-long pump pulse.
Physical Review X•Oct 5, 2018•4 citations