At Photonics West in San Francisco on 3 February, Element Six presented new data and announced that its high purity single crystal chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond material has been proven for use in intracavity cooling of disc lasers and in the development of the first ever tunable diamond Raman laser system.
With the material, the University of Strathclyde in Scotland was able to demonstrate the first ever tunable, continuous-wave, diamond raman laser. The single crystal CVD diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of any material at room temperature (up to 2200 W/mK). Combined with a low absorption coefficient at a number of key wavelengths, the university engineers were able to overcome a number of challenges typically associated with other materials. The university used synthetic diamond to pave the way for higher output powers at wavelengths that are challenging to generate with conventional lasers.
Dr Alan Kemp, senior research fellow at the University of Strathclyde, said of the achievement: ‘Synthetic diamond removed the thermal conductivity barriers associated with other materials, allowing us to successfully demonstrate higher power Raman lasers. This paves the way for much wider use of this unique and enabling material in solid-state laser engineering.’
Furthermore, photonics and laser manufacturer M Squared Lasers, has leveraged Element Six’s CVD diamond in a patented technique used in its Dragonfly semiconductor laser.
