High-power SRS lasers – coherent summators (the way it was)

The history of the research works performed under the guidance of H.G. Basov and aimed at developing high-energy lasers – coherent summators (CSs) – based on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen is reported. The work was performed jointly by researchers of FIAN [the Laboratory of Quantum Radiophysics (LQRP)] and VNIIEF. Many problems were solved as a result of these studies. Liquid nitrogen and oxygen were found to be optimal active media for high-power SRS lasers with high energy per pulse. A method for purifying these cryogenic liquids from micro- and nanoimpurities was developed, which made it possible to eliminate nonlinear loss of pump radiation and converted radiation in the active medium and ensure effective operation of SRS lasers – coherent summators (SRSL CSs) with high output energy. Cryogenic cells providing high optical homogeneity of liquid nitrogen and oxygen were developed, which ensured low (at a level of 0.1 mrad) divergence of converted radiation with high energy density. Raster focusing systems providing optimal concentration of pump radiation in the active medium were designed. These studies resulted in the development of high-power highenergy SRSL CSs with a low beam divergence, based on liquid nitrogen (λ_S = 1.89 μm) and liquid oxygen (λ_S = 1.65 μm), with pumping by explosively pumped iodine lasers (EPILs) (λ_p = 1.315 μm). The characteristics of the SRSL CSs developed were record for that time (the end of 1960s and the beginning of 1970s): energy up to 2.5 kJ per 10-μs pulse, beam divergence ~10^-4 rad, and beam energy density of several hundreds of J cm^-2.