PUMPED TRANSFORMER LASERS
Abstract
A new concept is presented and its analysis begun: the transformer laser. This arrangement is intended to convert the outputs from many lesser, and lower quality, auxiliary lasers into a single coherent planewavefront by absorption and re-emission in the normal transitions of a molecular gas medium. Work during this contract period has dealt exclusively with analyses of suitable gaseous media to be pumped by a battery of Nd-glass lasers near 1.06 microns. The most promising gas molecule found so far for this purpose is CN, which would be obtained from the preparatory exposure of normal (CN)2 gas to a pulse of UV light. The analysis to date indicates a probable potential for operation at very useful power densities, but only a few of the possible questions about such a system have yet been explored. Alternative choices for the gas medium might be Cs(2) or metastable nitrogen molecules. Further analysis of these molecules as well as of CN is planned.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 17, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0618896
Entities
People
- Cecil B. Ellis