Abstract

Interest in the hydrogen halides as laser media in the past has primarily been in connection with chemical pumping. In fact, these molecules also have great potential as near-IR to mid-IR frequency converters. They are suitable for this application because their overtone bands, while weak compared with the fundamental bands, have sufficient intensity for the purpose of optical pumping. As the fundamental band wavelengths for a number of them lie in the highly useful mid IR atmospheric window region and as the prospect for highly efficient near-IR solid-state lasers which can optically couple to their overtone bands appears quite good, their investigation as frequency converters is of some interest. We report here the first hydrogen halide laser excited by optical pumping on an overtone band transition.

© 1986 Optical Society of America