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Development of solid-state vibrational lasers. Final report, 1 April 1984-31 March 1985

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6046554

Continuous-wave lasing in the 5 ..mu..m wavelength region was obtained on the 2 to 1 vibrational transition of impurity CN- ions in KBr. Population inversion is produced by optical pumping of the weakly allowed first-overtone level of the molecule with a tunable (F2(+)) sub A color-center laser. The energy budget of this solid-state vibrational laser was investigated when the v = 2 upper laser level is pumped with a C-W color center laser. Using pulsed fluorescence techniques and numerical simulations, it was found that due to vibrational energy exchange between pairs of CN- ions in the v = 1 lower level, waste pump energy is recycled to the v = 2 upper level. Ideally the efficiency of this recycyling scheme approaches unity, but due to energy transfer into higher vibrational levels, and because of spectral diffusion within the inhomogeneously broadened CN- profile, the observed recycling efficiency is reduced. The author thinks this is the first experiment demonstrating defeat of the Manley-Rowe limit.

Research Organization:
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (USA). Lab. of Atomic and Solid State Physics
OSTI ID:
6046554
Report Number(s):
AD-A-159817/6/XAB
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English