Search and characterization of new crystals for Raman lasers

Summary form only given. In the last years, much attention has been paid to stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in synthetic crystals due to the possibility of designing all-solid-state lasers emitting radiation at the specified wavelength for both visible and IR spectral regions. We present the results on spectroscopic study and laser characterization investigation of some perspective classes of Raman materials. Our recent measurements of spontaneous Raman spectra showed that several new molybdate and tungstate Raman crystals, including BaWO/sub 4/ and BaMoO/sub 4/ are suitable for efficient SRS. They possessed high peak and high integral Raman scattering cross sections and could be used for SRS of both nano- and picosecond pump pulses. New barium tungstate Raman crystal has the value of integral Raman scattering cross-section the same as KGd(WO/sub 4/)/sub 2/ crystal and twice higher than Ba(NO/sub 3/)/sub 2/. The SRS mode linewidth in BaWO/sub 4/ is 1.6 cm/sup -1/ and is 5 times narrower than that in KGd(WO/sub 4/)/sub 2/. This results in four times higher than the peak cross-section which reaches the value of that in Ba(NO/sub 3/)/sub 2/ the best Raman crystal.