EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF BIDIRECTIONAL PUMPING OF A FAR-INFRARED LASER

We show that bi-directional pumping can increase significantly the out put power of optically pumped gas lasers. We demonstrate this effect i n experiments with a methanol laser pumped by a CO2 laser in a wide ra nge of gas pressure for two different wavelengths, 119 mu m and 170 mu m. In our experimental conditions we obtain an enhancement of the max imal output power up to 70% as compared with uni-directional pumping o f the same total intensity.