Diamond Brillouin laser in the visible
Zhenxu Bai, Robert J. Williams, Ondřej Kitzler, Soumya Sarang, David J. Spence, Yulei Wang, Zhiwei Lü, Richard P. Mildren
Abstract
Brillouin lasers providing extremely narrow-linewidth are emerging as a powerful tool for microwave photonics, coherent communications, quantum processors, and spectroscopy. So far, laser performance and applications have been investigated for a handful of select materials and using guided-wave structures such as micro-resonators, optical fibers, and chip-based waveguides. Here, we report a Brillouin laser based on free-space laser action in an extreme optical material. Continuous-wave lasing 167 GHz from a 532 nm pump is demonstrated in diamond using a doubly resonant ring cavity, generating a pump-limited output power of 11 W. The Brillouin gain coefficient is measured to be 79 cm GW−1 with a linewidth of 12 MHz. These properties, along with an exceptionally high Brillouin frequency and wide transmission range, make diamond Brillouin lasers a promising high-power source of narrow-linewidth output and mm-wave beat notes.