Abstract

Lasers based upon stimulated anti-Stokes Raman scattering have recently been demonstrated^1,2and such anti-Stokes Raman lasers (ASRL) show great potential as efficient up-converters of many of the currently available laser sources. In this paper we report the first experiments in which the tuning, power output, and saturation behavior of the ASRL are studied. For these experiments a Raman medium of metastable, inverted T1* $\left(6\text{p }2{\text{P}}_{3/2}^{\text{o}}\right)$ atoms was used. This inversion was created with high efficiency via selective photodissociative pumping with a KrF* excimer laser at 248 nm, thereby suggesting the possibility of large scale, excimer driven ASRL systems.

© 1983 Optical Society of America