Mode-locked picosecond diamond Raman laser

Numerical analysis of synchronously pumped solid-state Raman lasers

Considering the spatial distribution of laser beams and phonon waves, the SRS coupling wave equations in the transient regime are derived and normalized for the first time. The synchronously pumped solid-state Raman laser is simulated numerically to investigate the influences of the cavity length detuning, output coupling rate, dispersion, Raman gain and dephasing time of Raman mode on laser performances. It is found that the intensive pulse compression of first Stokes laser in synchronously pumped solid-state Raman laser stems from pulse width gain narrowing and intensity oscillation effects. The cavity length detuning, dispersion, Raman gain and dephasing time considerably affect the pulse width gain narrowing and intensity oscillation processes. The theoretical results can help the design and optimization of synchronously pumped solid-state Raman laser to generate ultrafast Raman laser output efficiently.

Investigation of a highly compact intracavity actively Q-switched cascade diamond Raman laser

A laser diode (LD) pumped intracavity chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond cascade Raman laser is reported here. By rotating a Brewster plate (BP) in the laser resonator, the Raman laser with tunable output coupling rate is achieved. The highly compact diamond laser emitted 1240 nm and 1485 nm Stokes light simultaneously via optimization of the pumping direction. The slope efficiency of the intracavity diamond laser is improved by optimizing the output coupling rate and adjusting the repetition rate of the 1064 nm fundamental laser. Ultimately, the maximum slope efficiency of the first Stokes light (1240 nm) is 16.8%, and the corresponding output power is about 0.6 W. The maximum peak power is 2.5 kW when the power of 808 nm LD is 34.7 W.

Investigating single-longitudinal-mode operation of a continuous wave second Stokes diamond Raman ring laser

We report a diamond Raman ring cavity laser resonantly pumped by a tunable Ti:sapphire continuous wave laser. We characterize the laser operation generating first Stokes output and, for the first time, generate second Stokes lasing at a maximum output power of 364 mW with 33.4% slope efficiency at 1101.3 nm. Single longitudinal mode operation is achieved for all first Stokes output powers, but only for lower output powers for second Stokes operation. We discuss possible reasons preventing single longitudinal mode operation.

Continuously tunable diamond Raman laser for resonance laser ionization

We demonstrate a highly efficient, tunable, ∼5  GHz linewidth diamond Raman laser operating at 479 nm. The diamond laser was pumped by a wavelength-tunable intracavity frequency-doubled titanium sapphire (Ti:Sapphire) laser operating at around 450 nm, at a repetition rate of 10 kHz with a pulse duration of 50 ns. The Raman resonator produced a continuously tunable output with high stability, high conversion efficiency (28%), and beam quality (M²<1.2). We also demonstrate that the linewidth and tunability of the pump laser is directly transferred to the Stokes output. Our results show that diamond Raman lasers offer great potential for spectroscopic applications, such as resonance laser ionization, in an all-solid-state platform.

Highly efficient picosecond all-solid-state Raman laser at 1179 and 1227 nm on single and combined Raman lines in a BaWO4 crystal

We present a highly efficient ring-cavity all-solid-state BaWO₄ Raman laser generating at both the long-shift (ν₁=925  cm^-1) and short-shift (ν₂=332  cm^-1) Raman lines under external picosecond synchronous pumping at the wavelength of 1063 nm. Very high slope efficiencies and output pulse energies of 68.8% and 103 nJ at the ν₁-shifted Stokes wavelength of 1179 nm, and 38.6% and 53 nJ at the (ν₁+ν₂)-shifted Stokes wavelength of 1227 nm have been achieved. Self-mode locking of the (ν₁+ν₂)-shifted Stokes field under intracavity pumping by the ν₁-shifted Stokes field allowed to realize 12-fold shortening of the 1227 nm radiation pulse down to 3 ps close to the shorter dephasing time of the ν₂ Raman line at the output pulse peak power 1.5 times higher than the pump peak power.

Sub-50 ps pulses at 620 nm obtained from frequency doubled 1240 nm diamond Raman laser

We report a monolithic 1240 nm diamond Raman laser producing pulses with duration of 42-62 ps at 100 kHz repetition rate, and maximum average power of 246 mW. The Raman laser is formed by a 0.5-mm thick planar diamond, coated on both sides and pumped by ~100 ps pulses from a Q-switched 1064 nm laser. The maximum conversion efficiency from 1064 nm to 1240 nm was about 25%. The 1240 nm signal was frequency-doubled in single-pass configuration through a 10-mm long LBO crystal, enabling generation of pulses with a duration of 29-46 ps at 620 nm. The maximum average power at 620 nm was 128 mW, and the maximum conversion efficiency from 1240 nm to 620 nm was 50%. The Raman laser provides an efficient and flexible way to extend short pulse operation to wavelengths in spectral domains difficult to reach, such as 620 nm and in addition provides a simple pulse shortening mechanisms.

Photonic structures in diamond based on femtosecond UV laser induced periodic surface structuring (LIPSS)

We study the fabrication of photonic surface structures in single crystal diamond by means of highly controllable direct femtosecond UV laser induced periodic surface structuring. By appropriately selecting the excitation wavelength, intensity, number of impinging pulses and their polarization state, we demonstrate emerging high quality and fidelity diamond grating structures with surface roughness below 1.4 nm. We characterize their optical properties and study their potential for the fabrication of photonic structure anti-reflection coatings for diamond Raman lasers in the near-IR.

Two-color multiphoton in vivo imaging with a femtosecond diamond Raman laser

Two-color multiphoton microscopy through wavelength mixing of synchronized lasers has been shown to increase the spectral window of excitable fluorophores without the need for wavelength tuning. However, most currently available dual output laser sources rely on the costly and complicated optical parametric generation approach. In this report, we detail a relatively simple and low cost diamond Raman laser pumped by a ytterbium fiber amplifier emitting at 1055 nm, which generates a first Stokes emission centered at 1240 nm with a pulse width of 100 fs. The two excitation wavelengths of 1055 and 1240 nm, along with the effective two-color excitation wavelength of 1140 nm, provide an almost complete coverage of fluorophores excitable within the range of 1000-1300 nm. When compared with 1055 nm excitation, two-color excitation at 1140 nm offers a 90% increase in signal for many far-red emitting fluorescent proteins (for example, tdKatushka2). We demonstrate multicolor imaging of tdKa-tushka2 and Hoechst 33342 via simultaneous two-color two-photon, and two-color three-photon microscopy in engineered 3D multicellular spheroids. We further discuss potential benefits and applications for two-color three-photon excitation. In addition, we show that this laser system is capable of in vivo imaging in mouse cortex to nearly 1 mm in depth with two-color excitation.

25.5 fs dissipative soliton diamond Raman laser

We have demonstrated a dissipative soliton diamond Raman laser that generates 25.5 fs pulses. Synchronously pumped by a 128 fs Ti:sapphire laser, the Raman cavity employed a pair of chirped mirrors to optimize the group delay dispersion, resulting in a Stokes field with 125 nm of spectral bandwidth from 840 to 965 nm. The Stokes pulse formation can be described as a dissipative soliton balancing self-phase modulation, normal dispersion, and gain due to stimulated Raman scattering (SRS).

Multiwavelength ultrafast LiNbO(3) Raman laser

We present a multiwavelength ultrafast Raman laser based on lithium niobate which uses polariton scattering in combination with Raman scattering to selectively generate new wavelengths from a nanojoule-scale picosecond pump laser. Pumped by a 1064 nm pump laser, the system generates 1123 nm by stimulated polariton scattering (SPS) and 1140 nm by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). Cascading of these intracavity fields generates 1155 nm and 1174 nm, as well as generating THz output.

High-Q/V Monolithic Diamond Microdisks Fabricated with Quasi-isotropic Etching

Optical microcavities enhance light-matter interactions and are essential for many experiments in solid state quantum optics, optomechanics, and nonlinear optics. Single crystal diamond microcavities are particularly sought after for applications involving diamond quantum emitters, such as nitrogen vacancy centers, and for experiments that benefit from diamond's excellent optical and mechanical properties. Light-matter coupling rates in experiments involving microcavities typically scale with Q/V, where Q and V are the microcavity quality-factor and mode-volume, respectively. Here we demonstrate that microdisk whispering gallery mode cavities with high Q/V can be fabricated directly from bulk single crystal diamond. By using a quasi-isotropic oxygen plasma to etch along diamond crystal planes and undercut passivated diamond structures, we create monolithic diamond microdisks. Fiber taper based measurements show that these devices support TE- and TM-like optical modes with Q > 1.1 × 10(5) and V < 11(λ/n) (3) at a wavelength of 1.5 μm.

Ti:sapphire-pumped diamond Raman laser with sub-100-fs pulse duration

We report a synchronously pumped femtosecond diamond Raman laser operating at 895 nm with a 33% slope efficiency. Pumped using a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser at 800 nm with a duration of 170 fs, the bandwidth of the Stokes output is broadened and chirped to enable subsequent pulse compression to 95 fs using a prism pair. Modeling results indicate that self-phase modulation drives the broadening of the Stokes spectrum in this highly transient laser. Our results demonstrate the potential for Raman conversion to extend the wavelength coverage and pulse shorten Ti:sapphire lasers.

Highly efficient picosecond diamond Raman laser at 1240 and 1485 nm

We present a highly efficient picosecond diamond Raman laser synchronously-pumped by a 4.8 W mode-locked laser at 1064 nm. A ring cavity was adopted for efficient operation. With a low-Q cavity for first-Stokes 1240 nm, we have achieved 2.75 W output power at 1240 nm with 59% overall conversion efficiency. The slope efficiency tended towards 76% far above the SRS threshold, approaching the SRS quantum limit for diamond. A high-Q first-Stokes cavity was employed for second-Stokes 1485 nm generation through the combined processes of four-wave mixing and single-pass stimulated Raman scattering. Up to 1.0 W of second-stokes at 1485 nm was obtained, corresponding to 21% overall conversion efficiency. The minimum output pulse duration was compressed relative to the 15 ps pump, producing pulses as short as 9 ps for 1240 nm and 6 ps for 1485 nm respectively.

Deep ultraviolet diamond Raman laser

We present a synchronously pumped diamond Raman laser operating at 275.7 nm pumped by the 4th harmonic of a mode locked Nd:YVO4 laser. The laser had a threshold pump pulse energy of 5.8 nJ and generated up to 0.96 nJ pulses at 10.3% conversion efficiency. The results agree well with a numerical model that includes two-photon absorption of the pump and Stokes beams and uses a Raman gain coefficient of diamond of 100 cm/GW. We also report on the observation of nanometer scale two-photon assisted etching of the diamond crystal surfaces.

1.6 W continuous-wave Raman laser using low-loss synthetic diamond

Low-birefringence (Δn<2x10(-6)), low-loss (absorption coefficient <0.006 cm(-1) at 1064 nm), single-crystal, synthetic diamond has been exploited in a CW Raman laser. The diamond Raman laser was intracavity pumped within a Nd:YVO4 laser. At the Raman laser wavelength of 1240 nm, CW output powers of 1.6 W and a slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed diode-laser pump power (at 808 nm) of ~18% were measured. In quasi-CW operation, maximum on-time output powers of 2.8 W (slope efficiency ~24%) were observed, resulting in an absorbed diode-laser pump power to the Raman laser output power conversion efficiency of 13%.

High average power diamond Raman laser

We report a pulsed Raman laser at 1193 nm based on synthetic diamond crystals with a record output power of 24.5 W and a slope efficiency of 57%. We compared the performance of an anti-reflection coated crystal at normal incidence with a Brewster cut sample. Raman oscillation was achieved at both room temperature and under cryogenic operation at 77 K. Modeling of these experiments allowed us to confirm the value of Raman gain coefficient of diamond, which was found to be 13.5 ± 2.0 cm/GW for a pump wavelength of 1030 nm.

Pulse compression in synchronously pumped mode locked Raman lasers

We explain a pulse compression mechanism reported in picosecond Raman lasers pumped by continuous trains of mode-locked pulses. Our theoretical model is based on transient Raman scattering equations, and shows good agreement with the experimental results. The model reveals that the compression effect is produced by a combination of group velocity walk-off and strong pump pulse depletion. We predict the possibilities and the limitations of this technique for constructing highly efficient, low cost, ultrafast Raman lasers in the visible.

Continuous-wave diamond Raman laser

Continuous-wave operation of a diamond Raman laser is demonstrated. Low-birefringence synthetic single-crystal diamond is used and is intracavity pumped by a Nd:YVO(4) laser. A cw output power of 200 mW is achieved at the Raman wavelength (1240 nm), and 1.6 W of on-time output power is obtained in quasi-cw mode. Losses in the diamond (approximately 1% per pass) and thermal effects in the Nd:YVO(4) limit the efficiency.

An intra-cavity Raman laser using synthetic single-crystal diamond

Low birefringence synthetic single-crystal diamond was used as a Raman laser medium inside a Q-switched Nd:YVO(4) laser. A maximum average output power of 375 mW was achieved at a wavelength of 1240 nm and a repetition rate of 6.3 kHz. This equates to a conversion efficiency of 4% from the diode laser to the first Stokes component at 1240 nm. Optical losses within the diamond (approximately 1% per single pass) limited the performance and are currently the main barrier to the demonstration of an efficient CW diamond Raman laser.