Limiting factors in PRF scaling of barium vapour lasers

Richard P. Mildren*, Daniel J. W. Brown, James A. Piper

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We have studied the factors limiting the performance of a barium vapour laser (BVL) as the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is elevated. By measuring the population densities of key barium species, we have found that increasing the PRF leads to progressively larger depletion of the axial pre-pulse Ba ground-state density (up to 85% at 15 kHz PRF), due to the combined effects of ion pumping and gas heating. A direct consequence of this Ba density depletion is a proportional decrease in the peak upper laser-level density of the 1.50 μm and 1.13 μm laser transitions (i.e. Ba 1P 1) during the excitation pulse. The results suggest that ground-state depletion is the dominant factor limiting laser output at high PRFs, and that the effects of the pre-pulse lower laser-level and electron densities play a secondary role. The implications to the PRF scaling of BVLs and other metal vapour lasers are discussed.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)299-302
    Number of pages4
    JournalOptics Communications
    Volume137
    Issue number4-6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 May 1997

    Keywords

    • barium vapour laser
    • depletion
    • electron density
    • ground-state
    • ion pumping
    • pulse repetition frequency

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