Abstract

A flash lamp-pumped titanium:sapphire laser, incorporating a self starting stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugate resonator is presented. Comparisons are made between acetone and high pressure SF₆ gas as the Brillouin medium. This system shows lower divergence, better beam quality and narrower linewidth than an equivalent conventional resonator with both tested media. In some configurations, using SF₆, the output energy is increased by 70%, divergence is reduced to twice the diffraction limit and passive Q-switching action is observed.

© 1996 Optical Society of America