SATURATION FLUX AND STIMULATED EMISSION CROSS SECTION OF THE CO2 LASER.
Abstract
Development of a high radiance laser source is a necessary preliminary to study of nonlinear phenomena in the gases of a typical atmosphere. Before an efficient laser power amplifier can be designed, two gain limiting effects must be understood: gain saturation and spectral hole-burning. Gain saturation flux and stimulated emission cross section for the strong laser transition in CO2 were measured. The saturation flux was found to be 22 (+2 or -2) W/sq cm for steady state emission. The cross section was found to agree with theory only after correction for participation of appreciable numbers of rotational levels in the gain process. It was concluded that gain linewidth is homogeneously saturable for typical CO2: N2: He mixtures in which pressure exceeds 10 torr, and that hole-burning will not occur until cw flux levels of the order of 100,000 W/sq cm are achieved. Hole-burning will appear at about 10,000 W/sq cm for Q-pulse amplification. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 11, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0663270
Entities
People
- D. F. Hotz
- J. W. Austin