High conversion efficiency diode-pumped CW Raman laser

Summary form only given. The nonresonant CW Raman laser utilizing high-finesse cavity (HFC) enhancement is a recent development for laser frequency down-conversion. Several different experiments have been demonstrated using H/sub 2/ gas as the Raman gain medium. In all these demonstrated systems, the front and back mirrors in the HFCs were identical, resulting in an impedance-matched cavity only below threshold. Consequently photon conversion efficiencies for these systems did not exceed 35%.