High-energy optically pumped molecular lasers in the 13- and 16-microm regions

This paper describes the construction of an optically pumped laser device. The device utilizes a line-tunable CO2 TEA laser as a source to optically pump a cell which is capable of cooling candidate laser gases down to approximately 150 degrees K. Laser outputs of 750 mJ in the 13-microm region and 100 mJ in the 16-microm region are obtained by pumping NH3 and CF4 respectively with 10 J of CO2 laser radiation. The measured conversion efficiencies are 15% for NH3 and 3% for CF4. These lasers can be used to photodissociate polyatomic molecules and are attractive sources for practical laser isotope separation.