High Power (> 10 W) Gold Vapor Laser with Second and Third Harmonics for Telecommunication and Engineering Applications

We report the results from a new class of gold vapor laser that produces 10 W of polarized high beam quality radiation at 627.8 nm with a pulse repetition frequency of 50 kHz. A highly robust laser tube is built from standard non-toxic refractory materials such as a boron nitride plasma tube. For the first time, the kinetic enhancement by the addition of hydrogen and hydrogen chloride to the laser buffer gas is demonstrated for a gold vapor laser. The frequency doubling and tripling of the fundamental beam yield 1.7 W of output at 313.9 nm and 35.5 mW of output at 209.2 nm, respectively. The frequency doubled output of the laser is used to demonstrate polymer micromachining, optical fiber-Bragg grating writing, and through-jacket long-period grating writing in photosensitive optical fiber.