Effect of nonsteadiness of the pumping power distribution on the generation threshold of a ruby laser

Abstract

It was established in [i, 2] that the experimental dependences of the threshold pumping energy on losses in the resonator for a ruby laser have a lower slope than a theoretical calculation predicts [3]. The reverse relationship between the experimental and theoretical dependences would be more natural, since heating of the ruby element by the radiation of the pumping lamp and the effect of thermal strains on the size of the losses were not taken into account in the calculation. One can show that nonrectangularity of the pumping pulse shape and the effect of intensified luminescence on the generation threshold also lead to an increase in the slope of the threshold dependence. Thus, taking into account the factors which are usually taken into account offers no qualitative explanation of the observed discrepancy in the behavior of the threshold curve of a ruby laser~ Nonsteadiness of the pumping power distribution is discussed in this paper as a possible cause of the observed effect.