Patent ID: 7061958

Claim:
An alkali vapor laser, comprising: an optical cavity resonant at a wavelength λ 1 , corresponding to a wavelength of a D 1 transition of an alkali atomic vapor; a gain medium within said optical cavity, said gain medium comprising a mixture of at least one buffer gas and said alkali atomic vapor having said D 1 transition wavelength matching said wavelength λ 1 of said optical cavity, wherein said at least one buffer gas has the dual purpose of collisionally broadening a D 2 transition of said alkali atomic vapor and collisionally transferring pump excitation from the upper level of said D 2 transition to the upper level of said D 1 transition at a rate larger than the radiative decay rate of either of these two levels; and a pump laser emitting pump radiation at a wavelength λ 2 with an emission spectral width of at least 0.01 nm (FWHM), for optically pumping said gain medium at a wavelength of a said D 2 transition of said alkali atomic vapor, including optical pumping in the Lorentzian spectral wings of said D 2 transition, generating laser emission output at wavelength λ 1 .