| 摘要 |
A method and apparatus for producing stimulated emission from a laser gain element containing an organic dye are described in which optical pumping is produced by visible laser diodes. Low threshold pump power and high optical conversion efficiency are achieved by producing a laser resonator mode waist at or near the laser gain element and spatially superimposing a pump mode waist at or near the laser resonator mode waist. Using low power visible AlGaInP laser diodes and the dyes rhodamine 700, oxazine 750, DOTCI or oxazine 1 in the laser gain element, incident pump threshold powers as low as 5.4 mW, optical conversion efficiencies of 49% and tunable emission between 700 nm and 800 nm were achieved. This laser was scaled to higher cw output power by using a DCM-based pump dye laser. In a preferred embodiment the laser resonator has two reflective elements in a nearly hemispherical configuration. Angular multiplexing of laser diodes to scale to higher laser diode pump power is described. Short pulse, cw or long pulse dye laser operation is possible for the dye laser apparatus described. In addition, high modulation rate dye laser operation pumped by high modulation rate laser diodes is described.
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