1240 nm diamond Raman laser operating near the quantum limit.

An external-cavity diamond Raman laser generating up to 2.0 W at 1240 nm from 3.3 W of 1064 nm pump power is investigated as a function of pump polarization direction. The maximum conversion efficiency was 61%, and the slope efficiency of 84% closely approaches the quantum limit of 85.8%. The lowest threshold for Raman lasing is achieved for pump polarization parallel to the <111> axis, which we show is consistent with theory.