INVESTIGATION OF THE SUMMATION OF COPPER-VAPOR LASER FREQUENCIES

An investigation was made of the conversion of the copper-vapour laser radiation (lambda(1) = 0.51 mu m and lambda(2) = 0.578 mu m) into UV radiation at the sum frequency (lambda(3) = 0.271 mu m) in a DKDP crys tal. The operation of this frequency converter was compared for two ma gnifications of the laser cavity: M = 5 and 200. The best results were obtained for M = 200 (average UV radiation power 0.75 W, conversion e fficiency 12%). A study was made of the characteristics of the formati on of radiation pulses representing the two lines in the laser beam as a whole and in its weakly diverging core. In a low-divergence beam th e yellow- and green-line pulses were emitted practically simultaneousl y with approximately the same peak power, which facilitated the sum-fr equency generation.