TUNABLE VISIBLE SOLID STATE LASERS BASED ON DOPED DIAMOND SUBSTRATES

RECENT SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ADVANCES IN THE FIELD OF SYNTHETIC DIAMOND DEPOSITION HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE TO GROW HIGH PURITY OR DOPED DIAMOND FILMS AND OFFER THE POTENTIAL FOR THE TAILORED GROWTH OF LASER QUALITY CRYSTALS. THE UNIQUE PROPERTIES OF DIAMOND, SUCH AS ITS CHEMICAL STABILITY, HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY AND ITS WIDE OPTICAL TRANSMISSION RANGE, MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE AS A SUBSTRATE FOR SOLID STATE LASER SYSTEMS. THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH QUALITY, SYNTHETIC DIAMONDS OFFERS THE POTENTIAL FOR GROWING SELECT CRYSTALS TO CREATE TAILORED LASER SUBSTRATES. SEVERAL PROPOSED DOPED DIAMOND SYSTEMS COULD RESULT IN NEW SOLID STATE LASERS WITH TUNABLE OUTPUT FREQUENCIES IN THE VISIBLE. WE PROPOSE A PROOF-OF-PRINCIPLE EXPERIMENT TO TEST THIS CAPABILITY. THE EXPERIMENTS PROPOSED IN THIS PHASE I STUDY WILL TEST THE FEASIBILITY OF THIS APPROACH BY PRODUCING AND CHARACTERIZING SELECTIVELY DOPED CRYSTALS THROUGH PHYSICAL MODIFICATION OF NATURAL DIAMONDS. THE FINAL EVALUATION WILL BE BASED UPON THE EXTENT OF DOPING WHICH CAN BE ACHIEVED, AS WELL AS A SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS OF THE DOPED CRYSTALS. THIS EVALUATION WILL DETERMINE THE POTENTIAL OF SUCH DOPED DIAMONDS AS ADVANCED LASER MATERIALS. ?????????????????????????