High rate optical amplification

The equations of
Q
switching are reexamined for a homogeneously broadened two-level material. It is shown that inertial effects in the material polarizability may play an important role in
Q
switching of lasers of narrow material linewidth. It is further shown that it is possible to amplify pulses of durations shorter than the inverse linewidth of the active material, provided the pulses are energetic enough to produce appreciable nonlinear behavior of the material. In this way it should be possible to produce, from a relatively long pulse, pulses of duration short compared to the inverse linewidth of the amplifying material. Numerical examples are given based on numbers pertinent to the CO
2
laser. Even though the model of a homogeneously broadened two-level system is an oversimplification of CO
2
laser operation, it is believed that guidelines for future work on CO
2
systems can be gleaned from these results.