A miniature tunable TEA CO2 laser using isotope 13C16O2 and 12C16O2

Abstract

A miniature tunable TEA CO2 laser using isotope 13C16O2 as the active medium is developed to extend the spectral range of CO2 lasers for further application. The optimization of the energy parameters of the tunable TEA 13C16O2 laser and the same laser using 12C16O2 are studied. When a gas mixture (13C16O2: N2: He = 1: 1: 3) at a total pressure of 6.4 × 104 Pa is used, the TEA 13C16O2 laser of a 45-cm3 active volume obtains 51 emission lines in the [0001–1000] and [0001–0200] bands. The maximum pulse energy of the TEA 13C16O2 laser is about 357 mJ. The same laser using the conventional gas mixture (12C16O2: N2: He = 1: 1: 3) at a pressure of 6.66 × 104 Pa is measured to obtain 69 laser emission lines and the maximum pulse energy of laser radiation is about 409 mJ.