Abstract
This work reports on an optically-pumped vertical external-cavity surface- emitting laser (VECSEL) emitting around 852 nm for Cesium atomic clocks experiments. We describe in the following our first results on the design and the characterization of a VECSEL's semiconductor structure suitable for these applications. We optimized the parameters of the structure in order to have a low threshold and a high gain structure emitting around 852 nm. With a compact setup, we obtained a 5-mW single frequency emission exhibiting broad and fine tunability around the Cesium D2 line.