Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Anti-stokes generation in a continuous-wave raman laser(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2008) Murphy, Sytil Kathleen; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: John L. CarlstenThe continuous-wave Raman laser system differs from other Raman systems in that it uses cavity enhancement to augment the pump laser source rather than a high-power pulsed laser source. Through interactions of the pump laser with the Raman active medium, all Raman systems can produce both red-shifted, Stokes, emission and blue-shifted, anti-Stokes, emission. Previous, continuous-wave Raman laser systems have focused on the Stokes emission. This dissertation presents theory and data on the anti-Stokes emission. Specifically, it investigates the anti-Stokes mode structure and the emitted power as a function of input pump power, detuning, pressure, and mode combination. In order to be able to compare theory to data, the existing semi-classical CW Raman laser theory is extended to include the possibility that the spatial mode of any of the three fields (pump, Stokes, or anti-Stokes) is not the fundamental spatial mode. Numerical simulations of this theory are used to understand the behavior of the CW Raman system. All the data is compared to the theory, with varying degrees of success. The pump laser used in this research is a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG at 532 nm and the Raman active medium is H 2. This combination results in Stokes and anti- Stokes wavelengths of 683 nm and 435 nm, respectively. Five methods were found in this research for increasing the amount of anti-Stokes emitted: increasing the input pump power, detuning from gain line-center of the Stokes emission, increasing the reflectivity of the cavity mirrors at the anti-Stokes wavelength, switching to a higher-order spatial mode, and decreasing the H 2 pressure within the Raman cavity. In general, it was found that the higher-order anti-Stokes modes did not agree with a single theoretical spatial mode. Superpositions were formed of multiple theoretical spatial modes giving intensity distribution across the profile similar to the measured profile. Three theoretical spatial mode symmetries were investigated: rectangular, cylindrical, and elliptical. Also measured was the Raman gain as a function of pressure. The accepted theory for the Raman linewidth was found to be slightly off.