HIGH-STABILITY SINGLE-MODE CONTINUOUS-WAVE PHOTOLYTIC IODINE LASER

Operation of a high-efficiency single mode atomic iodine laser is repo rted. Although the operation of many photodissociation driven iodine l aser have been reported recently, few of them deal with single axial a nd transverse mode operation, presumably due to the loss of output int ensity caused by insertion of intracavity optical elements. Our laser system produces continuous wave operation at 420 mW in a transverse el ectromagnetic (TEM)(00) mode. This corresponds to 23% conversion of ou tput power compared to operation in a multimode fashion. The output po wer is stable over long periods of operation (8 h) with no adjustment of optics or cleaning of reactant supply.