SPATIAL-ENERGY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RADIATION OF A CO2 SLIT LASER WITH HIGH-FREQUENCY PUMPING

This paper discusses the characteristics of a CO2 slit laser with pump ing by a high-frequency discharge and an active medium with a volume o f 40 and 80 cm(3). The unsaturated gains for slit lasers in the contin uous and frequency-pulsed excitation regimes have been measured for th e first time. The mean lasing power was 80-130 W at an electrooptic ef ficiency of about 10%. The pulsed lasing power is several times as lar ge as the average power in the continuous regime. The radiation diverg ence measured for two types of confocal cavities is close to the diffr action limit. (C) 1996 The Optical Society of America.