PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN OF AN OFF-RESONANT CONTINUOUS-WAVE RAMAN LASER

A steady-state theory that describes the performance of a cw oils-reso nant Raman laser is presented. The cw Raman laser is constructed in a nonconfocal high-finesse cavity that allows for high Raman gain with l ow pump powers, Threshold values of the pump laser used to pump the cw Raman laser are predicted to be as low as 1 mW. The maximum photon-co nversion efficiency for the cw Raman laser is predicted to be 508. The theory is compared with experimental results from a cw Raman laser th at operates with a pump wavelength of 532 nm and a Stokes-shifted wave length of 683 nm. A threshold pump power of 2 mW and a maximum photon- conversion efficiency of 34% +/- 6% was measured. With the mirrors use d in the experiment, these values correspond to the predictions from t he steady-state cw Raman laser theory. The theoretical model is then u sed to design cw Raman lasers operate near the maximum conversion effi ciency in the 1-4-mu m wavelength region. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.