Diode Pumped Rubidium Laser Based on Etalon Effects of Alkali Cell Windows*

Abstract

We demonstrate that the etalon effects of alkali cells can be used as the output coupler of an alkali laser. Based on a rubidium cell with highly parallelized windows, a 2.7 W rubidium laser with optical efficiency of 20.9% and slope efficiency of 31.8% is obtained by adopting unconventional output couplers. Since it has compact configuration and the inner surface of the rubidium cell is uncoated, this may be used in high power laser systems with long lifetimes.