Stimulated Raman scattering in Nd:SrWO4

Stimulated Raman scattering process in Nd:SrWO4 crystal was employed to frequency down‐shift the fundamental frequency of a Nd:YAG mode‐locked laser system. A single‐pass configuration of Raman crystal was investigated for this purpose. After that Nd:SrWO4 laser was built and coherent pumping by alexandrite laser radiation was used. The simultaneous generation of stimulated Raman scattering was proofed for the case of Q‐switching and mode‐locking of Nd:SrWO4 Raman cavity. For Nd:YAG 50 ps long (1064 nm) pulsed pumping a single‐pass first Stokes maximum energy and conversion efficiency were 1.6 mJ and 25% , respectively. With the free‐running Nd:SrWO4 laser the maximum energy of 90 mJ at wavelength 1057 nm was obtained. Q‐switching with the LiF:F−2 saturable absorber gave up to 1.3 mJ energy at the first Stokes frequency (1170 nm) in the pulse length of 3 ns. In mode‐locking regime (with saturable absorber ML51 in dichlorethan or 3955 in ethanol), the total generated energy was 1.8 mJ and 2.4 mJ for ML51 and 3955 dyes, respectively. The SRS output at 1170 nm was approximately 20% of those values. (© 2005 by ASTRO, Ltd. Published exclusively by WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA)