High Power Diode Pumped Cesium Lasers

We will discuss high power cesium vapor lasers pumped by multiple laser diode arrays. Previously a single laser diode array (LDA) has been shown to efficiently optically pump (63\% overall optical efficiency) a cesium vapor laser.\footnote{B. Zhdanov and R.J. Knize, Opt. Lett. \textbf{32} (15), 2167 (2007).} The LDA operates at 852 nm which pumps the Cs $D_2$ line, with a buffer gas present (ethane) at 500 torr which quenches the 6$P_{3/2}$ state to the 6$P_{1/2}$ state. Lasing then occurs back to the ground state at 894 nm. This setup succeeded in achieving a continuous wave output power of 10 W. Two similar laser diode arrays were used to pump a rubidium cell, where the output power was measured to be 17 W with a total optical efficiency of 46\%. Our progress using multiple LDA's to pump a Cs cell will be given, for both continuous wave and pulsed operation.