title: Investigating diamond Raman lasers at the 100 W level using quasi-continuous-wave pumping.
abstract: Quasi-cw pumping is used to investigate the high-power characteristics of cw beam conversion in diamond Raman lasers (DRLs). We show that thermal gradients establish in DRLs at approximately 50 μs for a 100 μm pump beam diameter, and thus that the steady state for cw operation can be reached within the 100-300 μs pulse duration of conventional quasi-cw pump laser technology. Using this approach, a steady-state on-time output power of 108 W was obtained from an external-cavity DRL during 250 μs pulses with 34% conversion efficiency. No thermal lens in the diamond was evident, showing excellent prospects for further power scaling.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Ondrej
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kitzler
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McKay
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Mildren