Line-Tunable Electronic-to-Vibrational Energy Transfer Lasers in the Mid-Infrared

Applications of laser technology like sensing and tracking of atmospheric gases require high power, line —- tunable lasers in the mid —- infrared, where most molecules show characteristic absorption spectra. Laser based chemical analysis in the wavelength region 2.8\textmum ≤ $\lambda$ ≤8.5\textmum usually employs lead sulfide diode lasers, which are tuned by varying the diode current and diode temperature in the temperature range below 100K. However, these lasers do not achieve the efficiency and beam quality of III-V-semiconductor based diode lasers, emitting in the near infrared or visible spectral region while operating at room temperature. The possibility of collecting the output power a large number of III-V-semiconductor diodes arranged in diode arrays is now widely used for efficient pumping of high power Nd:YAG-lasers.