A DIODE PUMPED, BROADLY TUNABLE, ACTIVELY STABILIZED, SINGLE MODE, LISAF LASER

BROADLY TUNABLE NARROW BAND SOLID STATE LASERS OPERATING IN THE NEAR INFRARED (0.7 TO 1.1 M) ARE REQUIRED FOR MANY SCIENTIFIC, MEDICAL AND REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS. A NEW LASER CRYSTAL, LISAF, OFFERS A TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPACT, EFFICIENT, TUNABLE, NEAR IR, DIODE-PUMPED ALL SOLID-STATE LASERS. RESEARCHERS ARE DEVELOPING A FEW HUNDRED MW OUTPUT POWER, TUNABLE, SINGLE MODE, CW LASER, BY COMBINING THE ADVENT OF HIGH POWER SEMICONDUCTOR LASER DIODES WITH THE UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS OF LISAF. HERE A NOVEL CONCEPT OF SELF INJECTION LOCKING IMPLEMENTED THROUGH A COMBINATION OF AN EXTERNAL CAVITY TUNING ELEMENT AND AN ETALON IS EMPLOYED FOR LINE NARROWING AND TUNING OF THE CW RING LASER TO ACHIEVE HIGH FREQUENCY STABILITY AND A NARROW LINEWIDTH (~15 MHZ). WHEN HIGHER POWERS ARE NEEDED, EITHER A REGENERATIVE DIODE-PUMPED AMPLIFIER OR A HIGH POWER INJECTION SEEDED FLASHLAMP PUMPED SLAVE LASER IS USED IN CONJUNCTION. EXTENSIVE SIMULATION STUDIES AND COMPREHENSIVE EXPERIMENTS USING A BREADBOARD DIODE-PUMPED LISAF LASER WILL BE PERFORMED TO DESIGN AN OPTIMUM CONFIGURATION FOR A TUNABLE SINGLE MODE LASER.