Saturation of hot CO2by short 10.6 µm laser pulses

Saturation of the absorption of hot CO
2
by 1.6 ns
P(18)
and
P(20)
laser pulses at 10.6 μm has been measured. Coherent propagation calculations with no fitting parameters are in good agreement with the data and are consistent with a substantial hot-band contribution to the
P(20)
saturation.