OPTICAL INHOMOGENEITIES OF THE ACTIVE MED IA OF HIGH-POWER INDUSTRIALCO2-LASERS WITH FAST AXIAL-FLOW

Theoretical and experimental investigations showed that a diverging th ermal gas lens, which forms in high-power industrial CO2 lasers with f ast axial flow of the active medium, can influence the diffraction los ses in the laser oscillator and the beam parameters. The nonlinear opt ical properties of the lens, demonstrated by the dependence of its opt ical power on the intensity of the output radiation, are described.