CF4 and NOCl molecular lasers operating in the 16-μm region

We have obtained stimulated emission in the 16-μm egion from CF4 and NOCl with an optical pumping scheme which uses a single CO2 TEA laser as the excitation source. Measured laser energies from CF4 and NOCl are 4 and 3 mJ, respectively, which represents an order-of-magnitude improvement over exisiting molecular lasers oscillating in this region. There appear to be no fundamental limitations to scaling these lasers to energies ⩾1 J. These lasers offer considerable promise for the laser isotope separation of uranium.