Rawlins Wilson T, Hoskinson Alan R, Galbally-Kinney Kristin L, Davis Steven J, Hopwood Jeffrey A, Han Jiande, Heaven Michael C
Physical Sciences Inc., 20 New England Business Center, Andover, Massachusetts 01810-1077, United States.
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States.
J Phys Chem A. 2023 Mar 23;127(11):2489-2502. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c00048. Epub 2023 Mar 13.
The optically pumped rare-gas metastable laser is capable of high-intensity lasing on a broad range of near-infrared transitions for excited-state rare gas atoms (Ar*, Kr*, Ne*, Xe*) diluted in flowing He. The lasing action is generated by photoexcitation of the metastable atom to an upper state, followed by collisional energy transfer with He to a neighboring state and lasing back to the metastable state. The metastables are generated in a high-efficiency electric discharge at pressures of ∼0.4 to 1 atm. The diode-pumped rare-gas laser (DPRGL) is a chemically inert analogue to diode-pumped alkali laser (DPAL) systems, with similar optical and power scaling characteristics for high-energy laser applications. We used a continuous-wave linear microplasma array in Ar/He mixtures to produce Ar(1s) (Paschen notation) metastables at number densities exceeding 10 cm. The gain medium was optically pumped by both a narrow-line 1 W titanium-sapphire laser and a 30 W diode laser. Tunable diode laser absorption and gain spectroscopy determined Ar(1s) number densities and small-signal gains up to ∼2.5 cm. Continuous-wave lasing was observed using the diode pump laser. The results were analyzed with a steady-state kinetics model relating the gain and the Ar(1s) number density.
光泵浦稀有气体亚稳态激光器能够在流动的氦气中稀释的激发态稀有气体原子（Ar*、Kr*、Ne*、Xe*）的广泛近红外跃迁上实现高强度激光发射。激光作用是通过将亚稳态原子光激发到更高能级，然后与氦气进行碰撞能量转移到相邻能级并激光回落到亚稳态而产生的。亚稳态是在约0.4至1个大气压的高效放电中产生的。二极管泵浦稀有气体激光器（DPRGL）是二极管泵浦碱金属激光器（DPAL）系统的化学惰性类似物，在高能激光应用中具有相似的光学和功率缩放特性。我们使用氩气/氦气混合物中的连续波线性微等离子体阵列来产生数量密度超过10/cm³的Ar(1s)（帕邢符号）亚稳态。增益介质由窄线1W钛宝石激光器和30W二极管激光器进行光泵浦。可调谐二极管激光吸收和增益光谱法确定了Ar(1s)数量密度和高达约2.5/cm的小信号增益。使用二极管泵浦激光器观察到了连续波激光发射。使用将增益与Ar(1s)数量密度相关联的稳态动力学模型对结果进行了分析。
