100 ps far-infrared laser pulses from optically pumped D2O

Abstract

In this paper we report the generation of ultrashort far-infrared laser pulses with durations less than 100 ps, powers exceeding 200 kW and intensities of more than 1.5 MW/cm². Far-infrared radiation was produced via stimulated resonance Raman scattering using a high-pressure CO₂-laser as pump source and the heavy water isotopes D₂¹⁶O and D₂¹⁸O as far-infrared laser media. Pulses achieved from this laser system were detected by a novel type of detector, sensitive over a broad spectral range from the far-infrared to the visible, basing on quasiparticle heating in a strip-line structured YBa₂Cu₃O_7−δ thin film.