Infrared laser
View Patent ↗An infrared laser has a seed laser with an optical seed output. A pump amplifier receives the optical seed output and has an amplified output. A molecular gas laser receives the amplified output and has an infrared optical output.
1. An infrared laser, comprising:
a seed laser having an optical output;
a optical amplifier receiving the optical seed output and having an amplified output; and
a molecular gas laser receiving the amplified output and having a continuous wave infrared optical output;
a feed-back loop comprising of a detection system and servo electronics, maintains a required resonant conditions for red-shifted laser operation.
2. The laser of claim 1 , wherein the molecular gas laser contains an optically resonant gas.
3. The laser of claim 1 , wherein the molecular gas laser contains a Raman active gas.
4. The laser of claim 1 , wherein the molecular gas laser has a doubly resonant cavity.
5. The laser of claim 1 , wherein the seed laser is a diode laser.
6. The laser of claim 5 , wherein the diode laser is distributed feedback diode laser.
7. The laser of claim 5 , wherein the diode laser is an external cavity diode laser.
8. The laser of claim 1 , wherein the seed laser is a plurality of diode lasers, each of the plurality of diode lasers having a different wavelength optical output.
9. The laser of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of diode lasers are distributed feedback diode lasers.
10. The laser of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of diode lasers are external cavity diode lasers.
11. The laser of claim 1 , wherein the optical amplifier is a plurality of optical amplifiers, the input to each being one or a plurality of diode lasers, and the output of each being coupled to the molecular gas laser.
12. The laser of claim 1 , further including a feedback system having a detector detecting the continuous wave infrared optical output and having a feedback signal.
13. The laser of claim 1 , wherein the optical amplifier is an optical fiber amplifier.
14. The laser of claim 13 , wherein the optical fiber amplifier is a rare earth fiber laser coupled to a Raman fiber laser/amplifier.
15. The laser of claim 14 , wherein a first optical resonator of the rare earth fiber laser physically overlaps a second optical resonator of the Raman fiber laser.
16. The laser of claim 13 , wherein the optical amplifier is a rare earth doped fiber amplifier.
17. The laser of claim 12 , wherein the feedback signal is coupled to the seed laser.
18. The laser of claim 1 , where the molecular gas laser contains CO as an optically resonant gas and the optical amplifier is an Er-doped fiber amplifier.
19. The laser of claim 1 , where the molecular gas laser contains H2 as a Raman active gas and the optical amplifier is an Er-doped fiber amplifier).
20. The laser of claim 1 where the molecular gas laser contains HBr as an optically resonant gas and the optical amplifier is a Tm-doped fiber amplifier.
21. The laser of claim 1 where the molecular gas laser contains DF as an optically resonant gas and the optical amplifier is a Tm-doped fiber amplifier.
22. The laser of claim 1 where the molecular gas is flowing through a pumped region of the cell.
23. An infrared laser, comprising:
a seed laser having a seed optical output;
an amplifier receiving the seed optical output and having an amplified output; and
a gas molecular laser pumped by the amplified output and having a continuous wave infrared output, the gas molecular laser having a doubly resonant cavity.
24. The laser of claim 23 , wherein the amplifier is a fiber amplifier.
25. The laser of claim 24 , wherein the gas molecular laser contains a Raman active gas.
26. The laser of claim 25 , wherein the Raman active gas is contained in a hollow core optical fiber.
27. An infrared laser, comprising:
a plurality of seed lasers, each of the plurality of seed lasers having an optical output at a different wavelength;
a fiber amplifier receiving the optical output from each of the plurality of seed lasers and having an amplified optical output;
a molecular gas laser pumped by the amplified optical output and having a continuous wave lasing at an infrared wavelength;
a feedback system detecting a power of the molecular gas laser and adjusting at least one of the different wavelengths of the one of the plurality of seed lasers.
28. The laser of claim 27 , wherein the fiber amplifier includes a Raman fiber laser.
29. The laser of claim 28 , wherein the Raman fiber laser is pumped by a rare earth fiber laser.