Auto-ionization pumped anti-Stokes Raman laser
AssigneeBell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated
InventorJonathan C. White
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An auto-ionization pumped anti-Stokes Raman laser is disclosed which is capable of creating a population inversion between the ground state and a metastable state of an ionic lasing material. The lasing material is first pumped above a metastable energy level, where it subsequently falls via auto-ionization back to the metastable level. A second laser pump is employed to move the population from the metastable state to a region near an intermediate state of the lasing material. The population subsequently falls back to the initial ground ionic state, thereby creating the anti-Stokes Raman emission.
Claims5
An auto-ionization pumped anti-Stokes Raman laser comprising
- a Raman lasing medium including a ground state, an intermediate state, and at least one metastable state of an ion;
- a first lasing source capable of creating a transition from the ground state of the Raman lasing medium to a predetermined level above a metastable state of said Raman lasing medium wherein said Raman lasing medium immediately ionizes and falls to said metastable state;
- and
- a second lasing source capable of creating a transition from said metastable state to a predetermined region near said intermediate state, thereby creating a Raman lasing output from said predetermined region to said ground ionic state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.