Patent ID: 7804877

Claim:
An alkali laser comprising: an optical cavity; van der Waals complexes within said optical cavity, each van der Waals complex formed from an alkali atom joined with a polarizable atom or molecule; and a pump laser for optically pumping said van der Waals complexes in a spectral satellite wherein the van der Waals complex is excited to form a excited molecule that subsequently dissociates, producing an excited alkali atom, thereby resulting in the generation of a laser emission on a transition of the excited alkali atom that terminates to a ground state, and wherein a wavelength of the pump laser optically pumps said van der Waals complex to either: (a) an A 2 Π 3/2 or B 2 Σ + 1/2 state, both A 2 Π 3/2 and B 2 Σ + 1/2 states dissociate to form the excited alkali atom in a 2 P 3/2 state and wherein the lasing transition is known as a D 2 transition and returns the excited alkali atom to the ground state of 2 S 1/2 , or (b) an A 2 Π 1/2 , state which dissociates to form the excited alkali atom in a 2 P 1/2 state and wherein the lasing transition is known as a D 1 transition and returns the excited alkali atom, to the ground state 2 S 1/2 .