Exciting the Raman effect at a wavelength in resonance with the absorption spectrum of the sample, typically in the visible spectral range, can increase the strength of Raman lines by orders of magnitude. Particularly in this case, the lines can be obscured by fluorescence but also by background light. Shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS) can recover Raman signatures. This method uses an excitation light source with alternating operation of two neighboring, spectrally stabilized, narrow emission wavelengths. Only the Raman lines follow that change in the excitation wavelength and can be separated from the background. Up to now, internally wavelength stabilized dual wavelength diode lasers for the blue and green spectral range are unavailable. Other concepts, as presented in this work, had to be evaluated. First, the combination of two external cavity stabilized GaN diode lasers will be presented. Low reflection coated laser diodes are externally wavelength stabilized using VBGs and their beams are superimposed. Output powers in the 10- mW range for emission wavelengths of 454 nm and 456 nm will be presented. Second, devices based on frequency doubled GaAs diode lasers will be tested. The wavelength shift is realized by thermal tuning of the heat sink or by applying a current to internal heater elements in the GaAs-DBR-RW-lasers. In this case output powers, up to 50 mW at 488 nm or 515 nm were achieved. Third, dual wavelength Y-branch diode lasers at 1064 nm were frequency converted towards 532 nm with output powers in the 10-mW range using customized SHG waveguide crystals.
Deep ultraviolet (DUV) lasers emitting below 300 nm are of great interest for many applications, for instance in medical diagnostics or for detecting biological agents. Established DUV lasers, e.g. gas lasers or frequency quadrupled solid-state lasers, are relatively bulky and have high power consumptions. A compact and reliable laser diode based system emitting in the DUV could help to address applications in environments where a portable and robust light source with low power consumption is needed. In this work, a compact DUV laser system based on single-pass frequency doubling of highpower GaN diode laser emission is presented. A commercially available high-power GaN laser diode from OSRAM Opto Semiconductors serves as a pump source. The laser diode is spectrally stabilized in an external cavity diode laser (ECDL) setup in Littrow configuration. The ECDL system reaches a maximum optical output power of 700 mW, maintaining narrowband emission below 60 pm (FWHM) at 445 nm over the entire operating range. By direct single pass frequency doubling in a BBO crystal with a length of 7.5 mm a maximum DUV output power of 16 μW at a wavelength of 222.5 nm is generated. The presented concept enables compact and efficient diode laser based light sources emitting in the DUV spectral range that are potentially suitable for in situ applications where a small footprint and low power consumption is essential.
KEYWORDS: Semiconductor lasers, Gallium nitride, Diffraction gratings, Laser systems engineering, Deep ultraviolet, High power lasers, Diodes, Light sources, Fabry–Perot interferometers, Complex systems
Recently, high-power broad-area laser diodes based on GaN with output powers beyond 1 W have become available. However, their broad spectral emission limits their applicability. Due to a lack of internal grating technology for GaN devices, narrowband emission with several hundreds of milliwatts in the blue-green spectral range has not been achieved with laser diodes thus far. In this work, a high-power external cavity diode laser (ECDL) system at 445 nm is presented. The system is based on a commercially available broad-area GaN laser diode and a surface diffraction grating in Littrow configuration for optical feedback. Using this configuration an output power of 400 mW with a reduced spectral emission bandwidth of 20 pm (FWHM) with a side-mode suppression ratio larger than 40 dB is obtained. With the above presented optical output power and narrowband laser emission at 445 nm, the ECDL is well suited as a pump light source for nonlinear frequency conversion into the deep ultraviolet spectral range.
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