Continuous-wave sodium D2 resonance radiation generated in single-pass sum-frequency generation with periodically poled lithium niobate

J. Yue, C. She, B. Williams, J. Vance, P. Acott, and T. Kawahara

Abstract

With two cw single-mode Nd:YAG lasers at 1064 and 1319 nm and a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal, 11 mW of 2 kHz/100 ms bandwidth single-mode tunable 589 nm cw radiation has been detected using single-pass sum-frequency generation. The demonstrated conversion efficiency is ~3.2%[W−1cm−1]. This compact solid-state light source has been used in a solid-state-dye laser hybrid sodium fluorescence lidar transmitter to measure temperatures and winds in the upper atmosphere (80-105 km); it is being implemented into the transmitter of a mobile all-solid-state sodium temperature and wind lidar under construction.