A new single mode tunable TEA laser

Date

1980-05

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

A simple and inexpensive technique for producing a single mode TEA CO2 laser is explored. The method involves the use of an intracavity selective absorber. A large laser system used in the early research was observed to yield 1.1 J single longitudinal mode pulses. This amounted to 73% of the multimode pulse energy. This encouraging result led to the design of a stabilized, tunable laser system. The laser frequency is smoothly tunable over some tens of megahertz, and stepwise tunable across the entire gain bandwidth of any particular line. The system includes a frequency reference laser so that precise knowledge of the TEA laser frequency with respect to line center is possible. Both lasers are grating tunable to any of the CO^ rotational transitions in the 9 to 11 micron region. The TEA laser exhibits an output energy of 200 millijoules in a single mode pulse/ the absolute frequency of which is known within 5 MHz.

Description

Keywords

Carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers, Laser beams -- Measurement

Citation