PARTLY TUNABLE MIDINFRARED NH3 LASER

Using a continously tunable pulsed 20-atmosphere CO2 laser as a pump s ource, we generated pulses of mid-infrared radiation, partly tunable i n frequency intervals in the range between 200 and 900 cm(-1) via stim ulated Raman scattering in gaseous ammonia. As a Raman cell we used a multiple pass cell. We observed for (NH3)-N-14 and (NH3)-N-15 laser li nes at 52 different frequencies with 39 lines observed for the first t ime. Tuning ranges up to 150 GHz and peak powers of several MW were ac hieved. The quantum efficiency reached 40 %.