Molecular inorganic, organic crystalline, and glassy materials for Raman laser converters

The process of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) allows to convert laser em ission wavelengths of materials providing suitable molecular or lattice mod es which Contribute to the third order nonlinear optical susceptibility. SR S of known materials can produce Stokes or anti-Stokes shifts in the range of about 100 to 3100 cm(-1). Renewed interest in this field emerged because of the discovery of SRS in crystals and glasses that contain molecular uni ts exhibiting Raman active modes. Particularly, organic nonlinear,optical m aterials used so far for frequency doubling and third harmonic generation s eem to have a I great potential for SRS applications. SRS laser systems are of interest in various fields including remote sensing of the atmosphere, which requires high peak-power laser pulses at wavelengths that are difficu lt to reach by current all-solid-state lasers. For SRS there is no need to have acentric materials, therefore, many of the organic crystals and polyme rs showing pronounced chi ((3)) properties may be reconsidered for a thus f ar unexplored direction in the manufacturing of all-solid-state laser frequ ency converters.