Continuous wave 16 µm CF4laser

A 16 μm CF
4
laser oscillator has operated continuous wave in a cooled static cell. Pump powers required from the low-pressure continuous wave CO
2
laser were approximately 3 W. The laser cavity was a multiple-pass off-axis-path two-mirror ring resonator. Unidirectional CF
4
laser power at 615 cm
^-1
exceeded 2 mW. Rate equations were used to estimate scaling of this laser source. For modest pump powers (40 W) approximately 1 W of emission power is predicted from this small and simple system.