Solid state infrared vibrational laser

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5422905

Gosnell, T R

Infrared laser oscillation was obtained for the first time from a purely vibrational transition in the solid state. The laser-active medium consisted of CN/sup -/ molecular ions substitutionally doped into KBr, KI, and RbI host lattices, and oscillation was observed on the 2 ..-->.. 1 and 3 ..-->.. 2 vibrational transitions of CN/sup -/ at lambda = 4.9 ..mu..m when the samples were cooled to 1.7 K. Population inversions in these systems were directly produced by optical pumping of the upper laser level using a KCl:Li(F/sub 2//sup +/)/sub A/ color-center laser, which was tunable to the weakly-allowed 0 ..-->.. 2 first-overtone transition of CN/sup -/, and a NaCl:K(F/sub 2//sup +/)/sub A/ color-center laser which was tunable to the very weak 0 ..-->.. 3 second overtone. In addition, a unique indirect pumping mechanism was discovered: Through coupling of their dynamic electric dipole moments, pairs of CN/sup -/ ions excited to the v = 1 state by a 100-nsec 4.8-..mu..m pulse from a frequency-doubled CO/sub 2/ TEA laser undergo an exchange vibrational energy (V-V transfer), yielding for each donor/acceptor pair one ground state ion and a doubly-excited ion. This cross-relaxation process was sufficiently rapid, compared with the vibrational relaxation rate for an isolated ion (20-40 sec/sup -1/), that a population inversion readily evolved between the v = 2 and v = 1 levels, which led to pulsed lasing on the 2 ..-->.. 1 vibrational transition.

• Research Organization: Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5422905
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420300* -- Engineering-- Lasers-- (-1989)
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ANIONS
BROMIDES
BROMINE COMPOUNDS
CHARGED PARTICLES
CYANOGEN
DOPED MATERIALS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY LEVELS
EXCITED STATES
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
INFRARED RADIATION
INORGANIC PHOSPHORS
IODIDES
IODINE COMPOUNDS
IONS
LASERS
MATERIALS
PHOSPHORS
POTASSIUM BROMIDES
POTASSIUM COMPOUNDS
POTASSIUM IODIDES
RADIATIONS
RUBIDIUM COMPOUNDS
RUBIDIUM IODIDES
SOLID STATE LASERS
VIBRATIONAL STATES