Near single-line operation of a free-burning CS2/O2/N2O flame laser with a nondispersive optical cavity

The CS2/O2/N2O flame laser has been operated for the first time under conditions in which the spectral output is nearly single line. This transition is the (17) of CO at 5.4265 μm, the same transition which was observed to oscillate in single-line fashion by Hirose et al. in an electrically initiated CO chemical laser. It is suggested that the unique behavior of this line may be due to its close proximity to a branch transition in an adjacent band, namely the (23) line, such that the gain profiles of the two lines overlap. Calculations suggest that at the conditions of these experiments, the separation of the line centers for this pair is about 0.3 Å or less. The (17) transition was also found to be totally absent under certain conditions of high multiline power, particulary at low O2and N2O flows. This may be due to absorption by a high-band branch transition at 5.4266 μm, namely the (32) line.