SBIR-STTR Award

Tunable lasers are required for many military and commercial applications but must possess wide tunability, efficiency, stability, and long-lifetime. In the past few years tunable solid-state lasers such as ti:sapphire have been developed and which when doubled can provide tunable emission in the 500-600 nm visible region. Surprisingly, no comprehensive study has been reported that compares the performance of various solid-state lasers, nor have various competing laser media (e.g. solid-state, liquid dye, etc.) Been compared. We propose to evaluate all known laser media to determine, for each spectral region chosen, which laser best combines the attributes required.

We propose to demonstrate an efficient dye laser oscillator/ amplifier system during a phase ii small business innovation research (SBIR) program. We expect to achieve a convrsion efficiency from 1064 nm nd:yag output energy to dye laser output energy in the range of 49-56%, across the spectral range 560-600 nm. The device will operate near the diffraction-limit due to the use of a unique double-passed phase-conjugated amplifier. An output pulse nergy of 250 mj and a repetition rate of 10 hz provide by a nd:yag laser operating near the diffraction-limit will be used to drive the second harmonic generation and dye laser subsystems.