Claims
- 1. A source of coherent IR in the vicinity of 16 um comprising:
- a parahydrogen cell (34);
- a CO.sub.2 laser (10);
- a multi-line gas laser (20) emitting with wave number significantly below 14,400 cm..sup.-1 ; and
- means for coupling emissions of said CO.sub.2 and multi-line gas laser to said parahydrogen cell (11, 12, 21, 30, 31, 32, 33) and output means for passing 16 um emissions of said parahydrogen cell (35).
- 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said parahydrogen cell (34) is at about ambient pressure.
- 3. An IR source emitting at 627.8 cm..sup.-1 including the apparatus of claim 1 wherein said CO.sub.2 laser (10) emits at a frequency (v.sub.i) which, when beat with a Raman driver wave (v.sub.L ') and a corresponding Stokes wave (v.sub.s ') in said parahydrogen cell (34) produces an emission at 627.8 cm..sup.-1 (v.sub.o).
- 4. A tunable source including the apparatus of claim 1 wherein said CO.sub.2 laser is a continuously tunable laser (10).
- 5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said multi-line gas laser is an HF laser emitting at about 3350 cm..sup.-1.
- 6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said multi-line gas laser is a DF laser emitting at about 2500 cm..sup.-1.
- 7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said multi-line gas laser is a CO laser emitting at about 1800 cm..sup.-1.
- 8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said multi-line gas laser is an HCL laser emitting at about 2600 cm..sup.-1.
- 9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said multi-line gas laser is a DCL laser emitting at about 1900 cm..sup.-1.
- 10. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said HF laser (10) emits with a pulse energy in the range 1J to 5J.
- 11. A method of producing coherent IR comprising the steps of:
- providing a parahydrogen cell (34);
- energizing a multi-line gas laser (20) emitting significantly below 14,400 cm..sup.-1 with sufficient intensity to exceed a Raman threshold in said cell and coupling said emissions to said cell;
- energizing a CO.sub.2 laser (10) emitting at about 982 cm..sup.-1 and coupling said emissions to said cell to spatially and temporally overlap with said multi-line gas laser emissions; and coupling 16 um emission from said cell.
- 12. The method of claim 11 wherein said multi-line gas laser (20) comprises a laser selected from the group consisting of HF, DF, CO, HCL and DCL.
- 13. A coherent IR source in the vicinity of 16 um comprising:
- a parahydrogen cell (34);
- multi-line laser source means for driving a Raman process to excite a 354.3 cm..sup.-1 Raman line in said cell (20, 21, 30, 31, 32, 33);
- a CO.sub.2 laser (10);
- means for coupling emissions of said CO.sub.2 laser to said parahydrogen cell (11, 12, 30-33) colinearly and temporally coincident with said Raman process; and
- output means for passing a 16 um emission from said cell (35).
- 14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said multi-line laser source means comprises an HF laser (20) and second coupling means for coupling said multi-line HF laser emissions to said cell (21, 30-33).
- 15. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said multi-line laser source means comprises a DF laser (20) and second coupling means for coupling said multi-line DF laser emissions to said cell (21, 30-33).
- 16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said multi-line laser source means comprises a CO laser (20) and second coupling means for coupling said multi-line CO laser emissions to said cell (21, 30-33).
- 17. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said multi-line laser source means comprises an HCL laser (20) and second coupling means for coupling said multi-line HCL laser emissions to said cell (21, 30-33).
- 18. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said multi-line laser source means comprises a DCL laser (20) and second coupling means for coupling said multi-line DCL laser emissions to said cell (21, 30-33).
- 19. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said parahydrogen cell (34) is at about ambient pressure.
- 20. A source of tunable IR including the apparatus of claim 13 and wherein said CO.sub.2 laser is a pressure broadened continuously tunable laser (10).
GOVERNMENT RIGHTS
The Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract N00014-76-C-0907, awarded by the Department of the Navy, and Contract DAAG 29-76-C-0062, awarded by the Department of the Army.
Non-Patent Literature Citations (2)
Entry |
Loy et al., "Applied Physics Letters", Apr. 15, 1977, pp. 415-417. |
Sorokin et al., "IEEE J. of Quantum Electronics", Oct. 1977, pp. 871-875. |