Background
A Raman laser based on Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) effect is an important means for expanding the laser spectrum range and obtaining a new-band light source. By means of the unique Raman beam self-cleaning (RBC) effect, the better pulse width narrowing effect and the narrow line width characteristic, the coherent radiation source with high performance can be obtained, and the method has important application background in the fields of biological medicine, astronomy, atmospheric exploration, military and the like.
In practical application, new laser light sources with different central wavelengths are often needed, for some special fields, different new wavelengths are needed, and simultaneously higher requirements such as narrow line width and the like are provided for the quality of the light sources, so that the raman laser is required to have wavelength tunable capability and narrow line width characteristics on the premise of outputting the new wavelengths, however, the current raman laser is generally single or independent multi-wavelength output, does not have wavelength width tuning capability, and has wider line width. Even though there are documents "wavelet transforming and power enhancing of an intracavity Nd: GdVO4-BaWO4Raman laser using an etalon (optical Express 26(24),32145-32155,2018) reports a Raman laser with tunable capability, but the tunable capability is very weak, the output wavelength can be tuned only in a range of a few nanometers, and the method is limited by the tuning of the etalonThe ability, without the potential for wide tuning, has been largely limited in practical applications. In addition, it has been reported that a tunable raman laser is implemented by using a tunable dye laser as fundamental light, and this method uses a dye as a laser gain medium, and the dye has toxicity, and the dye needs to be frequently replaced, and the system is not easy to be miniaturized, which is not favorable for practical application.
Disclosure of Invention
The application provides a wide-tuning narrow-linewidth all-solid-state Raman laser, so that the Raman laser can output narrow-linewidth Raman light with continuously tunable wavelength in a large range.
The application provides a wide-tuning narrow-linewidth all-solid-state Raman laser, including:
the pumping light source is used for pumping and exciting the laser gain medium;
the laser resonant cavity is composed of a first laser total reflection mirror, a second laser total reflection mirror, a third laser total reflection mirror and a laser output mirror, and a laser gain medium, a dispersion element and an etalon are arranged in the laser resonant cavity;
the Raman resonant cavity is composed of a Raman light total reflection mirror and a Raman light output mirror, and a Raman medium is arranged in the Raman resonant cavity;
the pump light is incident through the second laser total reflection mirror, the laser gain medium is pumped, laser oscillation is generated in the laser resonant cavity, and the laser is output from the laser output mirror after passing through the dispersion element, the etalon and the first laser total reflection mirror; and coupling the laser output by the laser output mirror as fundamental frequency light to the Raman resonant cavity, and outputting the Raman light by the Raman light output mirror after the frequency shift of the Raman medium.
Optionally, the laser resonant cavity further includes a Q-switch for modulating laser light in the laser resonant cavity.
Optionally, the laser gain medium adopts titanium sapphire crystal or Cr LiSAF crystal.
Optionally, the dispersive element employs a prism, a grating or a birefringent filter.
Optionally, the raman medium is vanadate crystal, tungstate crystal or diamond crystal.
The beneficial effect that this application possesses as follows: the pumping light emitted by the pumping light source is transmitted by the second laser total reflection mirror to pump and excite the laser gain medium, because the laser gain medium has wide gain spectrum, when the gain is larger than the loss, the laser oscillation with wide spectrum can be generated in the laser resonant cavity, the laser passes through the dispersion action of the dispersion element, so that the laser light paths with different wavelengths in the laser resonant cavity are different, the laser resonant cavity can provide feedback gain for the laser with any central wavelength in the gain spectrum range in the cavity by adjusting the first laser total reflection mirror, therefore, when the first laser holomirror is adjusted to provide the maximum gain for a certain central wavelength laser, through the mode competition effect, the laser with the wavelength can oscillate in the laser resonant cavity, and the linewidth of the oscillated laser is narrowed through the etalon and finally output from the laser output mirror, so that the laser output with the wavelength capable of being continuously tuned and the linewidth narrow can be realized. Laser output by the laser output mirror is coupled into the Raman medium as fundamental frequency light and is converted into Raman light through the frequency shift effect of the Raman medium, so that the Raman light with continuously tunable wavelength and narrow line width is finally output by the Raman light output mirror. In addition, the tuning range can be further widened by replacing laser gain media with different gain spectrums and Raman media with different Raman frequency shifts and matching with nonlinear frequency variation means such as frequency doubling and the like; RBC effect based on SRS process can realize high beam quality Raman light output; the realized all-solid-state tunable narrow-linewidth laser is used as a fundamental frequency light source, so that the all-solid-state tunable narrow-linewidth laser can realize the all-solid curing of the system and is beneficial to the miniaturization of the system. Therefore, the Raman optical wavelength tuning device has the advantages of large Raman optical wavelength tuning range, narrow line width, excellent light beam quality, miniaturization and the like.
Detailed Description
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
The wide-tuning narrow-linewidth all-solid-state Raman laser provided by the embodiment of the application can integrally comprise a pump light source 11, a laser resonant cavity and a Raman resonant cavity, wherein the laser resonant cavity is coupled with the Raman resonant cavity, and the pump light source is used for emitting pump light to the laser resonant cavity.
In a specific implementation, as shown in fig. 1, first, the laser resonant cavity is composed of a first laser total reflection mirror 1-1, a second laser total reflection mirror 1-2, a third laser total reflection mirror 1-3, and a laser output mirror 2, and a laser gain medium 3, an etalon 4, and a dispersion element 5 are disposed in the laser resonant cavity.
The laser gain medium 3 may be titanium sapphire crystal, or laser crystal with a wide gain spectrum, such as Cr: LiSAF, which can be selected by those skilled in the art according to practical applications, and the embodiment is not limited.
The dispersive element 5 may be a prism, an element capable of performing a dispersive action such as a grating, or the dispersive element 5 may be replaced by an optical element such as a birefringent filter having a tuning capability. In the present embodiment, the specific choice of the dispersion element 5 is not limited, and any element having dispersion or wavelength tuning capability may be used.
The laser gain medium 3 is plated with an antireflection film with a pumping light and an intracavity oscillation laser tunable range, and if a titanium gem crystal is adopted, brewster angle cutting can be carried out on the two end faces of the titanium gem crystal; the dispersion element 5 can be coated with an antireflection film in the tunable range of the intracavity oscillation laser on a light-passing surface if a prism is adopted; the laser total reflection mirror is plated with a pumping light antireflection film and a high reflection film within the tunable range of the oscillation laser in the cavity, and comprises a first laser total reflection mirror 1-1, a second laser total reflection mirror 1-2 and a third laser total reflection mirror 1-3; the laser output mirror 2 is plated with a pump light high-reflection film and a partial transmission film in the tunable range of the intracavity oscillation laser. The pump light emitted by the pump light source 11 may be green light with a wavelength of 532nm, or pump light with other wavelengths, which is not limited in this embodiment; the tunable range of the intracavity oscillation laser can be selected according to actual needs, such as a larger wavelength tuning range of 700nm-1000 nm.
For the laser resonator structure shown in fig. 1, after the pumping light emitted by the pumping light source 11 is incident through the second laser total reflection mirror 1-2, the laser gain medium 3 is pumped and excited, because the laser gain medium 3 has a wide gain spectrum, when the gain is larger than the loss, the laser oscillation with wide spectrum is generated in the laser resonator, the laser passes through the dispersion action of the dispersion element 5, so that the laser paths with different wavelengths in the laser resonator are different, the laser resonator can provide feedback gain for the laser with any central wavelength in the gain spectrum range in the cavity by adjusting the first laser total reflection mirror 1-1, therefore, when the first laser total reflection mirror 1-1 is adjusted to provide the maximum gain for the laser with a certain central wavelength, the laser with the wavelength can oscillate in the laser resonator through the mode competition effect, and then the width of the oscillated laser is narrowed through the etalon 4, finally, the laser is output from the laser output mirror 2, so that the laser output with continuously tunable wavelength and narrow line width can be realized.
In the optional scheme of this embodiment, the laser resonant cavity further includes a Q switch 6, and the Q switch 6 is used to modulate the laser in the laser resonant cavity, so that the pulse operation of the laser can be realized, the laser peak power is improved, and the raman conversion efficiency is further improved. The Q-switch 6 may not be provided in the laser cavity if only continuous wave laser output is to be achieved.
The Q-switch 6 may be an active Q-switch, such as an acousto-optic Q-switch or an electro-optic Q-switch; the Q-switch 6 may also be a passive Q-switch, which may be a crystalline material with saturable absorption effect or a saturable absorbing semiconductor material. It should be noted that the selection of the Q-switch 6 is not limited to the embodiment.
In a specific implementation, as shown in fig. 1, the raman resonator is composed of a raman light total reflection mirror 8 and a raman light output mirror 10, a raman medium 9 is disposed in the raman resonator, and the laser output from the laser output mirror 2 is used as a fundamental frequency light, and the fundamental frequency light can be coupled to the raman medium 9 in the raman resonator through a coupling lens 7.
The raman medium 9 may be made of a crystal material having a stimulated raman scattering effect, such as a vanadate crystal (e.g., YVO4), a tungstate crystal, or a diamond crystal. Wherein, the tungstate crystal can be KGW, BaWO4 or SrWO4 and the like. The choice of raman medium 9 is not limited to that described in this embodiment.
The two surfaces of the coupling lens 7 are plated with antireflection films in the tunable range of the intracavity oscillation laser; the Raman light total reflection mirror 8 is plated with a high reflection film in the tunable range of the Raman light in the cavity and an antireflection film of the fundamental frequency light; both ends of the Raman medium 9 are plated with antireflection films with relatively large wavelength ranges; the Raman light output mirror 10 is coated with a high-reflection film of fundamental frequency light and a partial transmission film in the tunable range of intracavity Raman light. For example, the double surfaces of the coupling lens 7 are plated with 700nm-1000nm antireflection films; the Raman light total reflection mirror 8 is plated with a 700nm-950nm antireflection film and a 970nm-1200nm high reflection film; both ends of the Raman medium 9 are plated with 700nm-1200nm antireflection films; the Raman light output mirror 10 is plated with a 700nm-950nm high reflection film and a 970nm-1200nm partial transmission film. In the present application, the wavelength range of the coating film of each optical element is not limited.
The laser output from the laser output mirror 2 is a laser with a wavelength range capable of being continuously tuned in a large range and a narrow line width, the laser with the characteristic is used as a fundamental frequency light, namely as a pump light of a stimulated Raman scattering effect, the fundamental frequency light is coupled to a Raman medium 9 in a Raman resonant cavity through a coupling lens 7, so that a Raman light is generated, under the action of the Raman resonant cavity, when the gain is larger than the loss, the Raman light starts to vibrate, and finally the Raman light with the wavelength range capable of being continuously tuned in the large range and the narrow line width is output by a Raman light output mirror 10. Because the Raman gain process has no gain space hole burning effect, the output of the narrow linewidth Raman light can be realized under the pumping of the narrow linewidth laser.
By combining the technical proposal, the laser gain medium with wide gain spectrum is adopted, under the excitation of pump light, the laser gain medium is matched with a dispersion element, an etalon and three laser total reflection mirrors in a laser resonant cavity, so that the laser output mirror can output narrow linewidth laser with tunable wavelength, and the laser output by the laser output mirror is coupled into the Raman medium, the Raman light with tunable wavelength and narrow linewidth is output under the action of the Raman resonant cavity, the wavelength tuning range of the output Raman light is large and the linewidth is narrow, the laser gain media with different gain spectrums and the Raman media with different Raman frequency shifts are replaced, nonlinear frequency change means such as frequency doubling and the like are matched, the tuning range of the Raman laser can be further widened, and the integral Raman laser is in an all-solid state, compact in structure, and has the advantages of large wavelength tuning range, narrow line width, excellent light beam quality, easiness in miniaturization and the like.
It should be noted that the elements included in the raman laser and the implementation principle thereof described based on this embodiment are not limited to the layout form of each element shown in fig. 1, and those skilled in the art can make reasonable adjustments according to the actual situation.
Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. This application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention following, in general, the principles of the invention and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the invention pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.
It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements described above and shown in the drawings and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the invention is limited only by the appended claims.