Conversion of carbon dioxide laser radiation into visible light in proustite

An experimental investigation was made of the angular and power characteristics of the conversion of the CO₂ laser radiation into visible light in a nonlinear proustite crystal. The pump radiation was provided by a low-power cw krypton ion laser (λ = 676.4 nm). The spectral width of the conversion band was 11.7 cm^–1. The measured quantum conversion efficiency (6.6×10^–9) was assumed to apply also to high-power pulsed pump radiation. An estimate of the maximum threshold sensitivity attainable in a real crystal was estimated allowing for the thermal background noise in the conversion band. The estimated sensitivity was 4×10^–13 W·Hz^–1/2.