title: Operation of a Raman laser in bulk silicon.
abstract: A Raman laser based on a bulk silicon single crystal with 1.127 μm emission wavelength is demonstrated. The Si crystal with 30 mm length was placed into an external cavity and pumped by a Q-switched Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier system. Strong defocusing of the pump and Raman laser beam by free carriers was compensated by an intracavity lens. Raman laser operation with a pulse duration of 2.5 ns was identified by a Raman laser threshold significantly lower than the single-pass stimulated Raman-scattering threshold. Linear absorption losses of the 1.06415 μm pump radiation are strongly reduced by cooling the Si crystal to a temperature of 10 K.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optics and Atomic Physics, Technische Universität Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany. hanjo.rhee@physik.tu‐berlin.de
authors.forename: Hanjo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rhee
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lux
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meister
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Woggon
authors.forename: Alexander A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kaminskii
authors.forename: Hans Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Eichler