The measurement of gain on the 1.315 μm transition of atomic iodine in a subsonic flow of chemically generated NCl(a [formula omitted

Abstract

Gain is measured on the electronic I( 2 P 3/2 )– I ∗( 2 P 1/2) transition of atomic iodine at 1.315 μm when hydrazoic acid HN 3 is injected into a flow of iodine and chlorine atoms. The inversion was generated in a transverse subsonic flow device that produced electronically excited I ∗( 2 P 1/2) atoms from the efficient energy transfer reaction between NCl(a 1 Δ ) metastable and ground state I( 2 P 3/2) atoms. The population inversion was directly observed using a 1.315 μm tunable diode laser that scanned the entire line shape of the (3,4) hyperfine transition of iodine.