A review of recent developments in high-pressure pulsed molecular lasers is presented. Included are some experimental results on TEA lasers, E-beam lasers, and lasers using Blumlein excitation. Discussions of the kinetic modeling, the parametric behavior, and the characteristics of uniform discharges in the high-pressure pulsed CO 2 laser are given. Recent results on pulse-initiated chemical lasers, extremely high-pressure lasers, and high-repetition-rate TEA lasers are also discussed. Efforts to control and use the output from these devices are described, and an extensive list of references is given.

High-pressure pulsed molecular lasers

Ultrashort laser pulses are finding increasing application in numerous branches of science and technology. This article is an attempt to provide a comprehensive review of the whole field of ultrashort pulse generation, covering both the experimental and the theoretical aspects of the subject. By far the commonest method of generating pulses in the picosecond and subpicosecond regime is the technique known as 'mode-locking' and it is with this that the review is therefore largely concerned. After introductory remarks and a simple treatment of some of the general principles, the central sections of the review deal with the main generic techniques, namely spontaneous mode-locking, active mode-locking (including mode-locking by synchronous pumping) and passive mode-locking. Within each section the material is organised into three main categories, namely (a) general background, (b) historical survey (mainly relating to experimental work and densely packed with references to published work) and (c) theoretical methods (presented with a strongly pedagogical flavour). A major section at the end deals with a mass of important (and mostly recent) work that does not fit naturally into the main framework of the review. This includes USP generation in semiconductor lasers, a number of special methods such as injection mode-locking (and others where two or more mode-locking techniques are combined), as well as chopping and switching techniques.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0034-4885/46/8/001/pdf

The generation of ultrashort laser pulses

A line-tunable CO2 laser system is described producing repeatable pulses with selectable widths from 2 to 60 nsec. High energy contrast ratio (minimum of 10) is achieved in both the P and R branches of the 9- and 10-μm bands making this system a valuable source for photochemical studies.

Short-pulse CO 2 laser for photochemical studies

The design and performance of a 2.25‐cm2‐aperture Pockels cell system for 10‐μm radiation is described. Pulses as short as 90 ps can be reliably generated with this device.

Ultrafast Pockels cells for the infrared.

Production of single subnanosecond multi-line 10.6 μm laser pulses by fast optical gating

Single pulses of 1-ns duration have been generated at 106-μ wavelength using a pulse-selection scheme in conjunction with an actively mode-locked CO 2 TEA oscillator The experimental setup and its operating characteristics are presented A technique is described, which yields pulse extinction ratios of approximately 900:1

D. Davis

Papers

Generation of single l-ns pulses at 10.6 µ

D. Davis

Papers

Generation of single l-ns pulses at 10.6 &#181;

Generation of single l-ns pulses at 10.6 µ