cw and improved pulsed operation of the 14- and 16-μm CO2 lasers

The performance of the 14- and 16-μm CO2 lasers produced in the electric discharge gasdynamic laser has been significantly improved by the addition of a small percentage of H2 to deactivate the (0110) level. This addition tripled the pulsed output of the laser, and 45 μJ at 14 μm and 25 μJ at 16 μm were observed. cw oscillation was achieved for the first time, with output powers of 0.6 and 0.9 W, respectively. The effect of collisional processes in limiting the CO2 density is discussed.