A direct diode pumped continuous-wave Ti:sapphire laser as seed of a pulsed amplifier for high-resolution resonance ionization spectroscopy

Progress of the development of a tunable continuous-wave directly diode-pumped Ti:sapphire laser is reported. The pump diode system based on InGaN multimode emitters in the blue-green wavelength region is characterized in terms of beam quality and output power. A prototype bow-tie resonator with a short highly doped Brewster-cut Ti:sapphire crystal was investigated. Output power scaling with the number of pump diodes and output coupling ratio as well as wavelength tuning range using a three-plate birefringent filter was measured.