Patent ID: 6901084

Claim:
A diode pumped, solid-state Raman laser comprising: (i) a resonator cavity having at least one reflector and an output coupler for decoupling and outputting an output beam from the resonator cavity; (ii) a laser material positioned in the resonator cavity configured to be pumped by a pump beam from a diode pump source, the pump beam having a beam size (ω P ) in the laser material, in response to being pumped by the pump beam the laser material emitting a cavity laser beam propagating in the resonator cavity with a cavity laser beam mode size (ω A ) in the laser material, the laser material having a thermal lens resulting from being pumped by the pump beam, the thermal lens of the laser material having a focal length that changes with increasing deposition of heat in the laser material; (iii) a Q-switch that converts the cavity laser beam into a pulsed cavity laser beam; (iv) a solid-state Raman medium positioned in the resonator cavity that shifts an optical frequency of the pulsed cavity laser beam to produce a Raman laser beam that propagates in the resonator cavity, the Raman laser beam having a Raman laser beam mode size (ω B ) in the Raman medium, the Raman medium having a thermal lens with a focal length that changes with increasing deposition of heat in the Raman medium, wherein (ω A ) is greater than (ω B ) and (ω A ) is mode-matched to (ω P ).