Gain of high-pressure CO2lasers

Previous theories of high-pressure CO
2
gain spectra have been modified to include gain Contributions from the newly discovered 00°2 and 00°3 sequence bands. It is shown that the inclusion of these bands has important consequences for TE CO
2
lasers. At a pressure of 14 atm, the sequence bands typically cause a 40 percent increase in calculated gain at all frequencies. Even at pressures as low as 1 atm, the presence of the sequence lines leads to anomalous gain coefficients on many of the regular 00°1 laser lines.