Enhanced performance of the iodine monofluoride (491 nm) laser

Author

Kane, Karen Y. ; Eden, J. Gary

Author_Institution

Everitt Lab., Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL, USA

Volume

26

Issue

9

fYear

1990

fDate

9/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1620

Lastpage

1623

Abstract

The impact of substituting HI for CF₃I as the iodine donor in the discharge-pumped iodine monofluoride (IF) laser at 491 nm has been investigated. More than an order of magnitude improvement in output pulse energy has been observed and is attributed to more efficient production of low-lying (v\´<5) vibrational levels of the IF (D\´) ion pair state. Preliminary evidence indicates that vibrational excitation of HI (X¹Σ⁺) assists in the relaxation of the D\´ state population. The increased net small-signal gain of D\´→A\´ (v\´=0→v^") transitions in HI-containing gas mixtures has the effect of intensifying the 491-nm (0.15) bandhead relative to the lower gain transitions

Keywords

gas lasers; hydrogen compounds; iodine compounds; laser transitions; molecular excited states; 491 nm; D´ state population; D´→A´ HI laser transitions; HI; IF; discharge pumped lasers; ion pair state; net small-signal gain; output pulse energy; vibrational excitation; vibrational levels; Energy measurement; Gas lasers; Helium; Laboratories; Laser transitions; Optical filters; Optical pulses; Pulse measurements; Pump lasers; Thyratrons;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.102641

Filename

102641