One watt average power by second harmonic and sum frequency generation from a single medium scale copper vapor laser

摘要

Ultraviolet (UV) powers of over 1 W have been obtained by second harmonic and sum frequency generation from a single medium scale (20 W) copper vapor laser (CVL) using a new focal geometry in which the CVL beam is focused in only one direction to produce a line focus within a BBO crystal. High optical conversion efficiencies, 20 and 30%, are observed for the low divergence ( approximately -10 times the diffraction limit) and diffraction-limited components of the CVL output, respectively. Wall-plug efficiencies for UV generation are up to 0.04%. Efficient frequency conversion has also been demonstrated for CVL operating conditions unsuited to the generation of diffraction limited output.