Neon lasing (λ = 540.1 nm) in a dense optical cavity pumped by a pulsed inductive cylindrical discharge

Abstract

The experimental results of the lasing characteristics dependence of the inductive neon laser (λ = 540.1 nm) on the optical cavity quality factor are presented. In the described experiments, the laser was operated in the amplified spontaneous emission mode. A frontal-substrate resonator (made according to the type of an open Fabry–Perot interferometer) was used, as well as a dense resonator with a reflection coefficient of the front mirror of 82%. Replacing the front substrate with an output mirror resulted in an increase in the lasing energy and optical pulse duration from 8.5 μJ to 41 μJ and from 10.0 ± 0.1 ns to 14.8 ± 0.1 ns, respectively. It is shown that the use of a dense resonator allows us to change the shape of the laser beam in the far field from annular to circular and to obtain intensity distribution close to uniform.