New direct optical pump schemes for multiatmosphere CO/sub 2/ and N/sub 2/O lasers

Nine schemes for direct optical pumping of multiatmosphere CO/sub 2/ and N/sub 2/O lasers at pump wavelengths in the 1.4-3.6- mu m region are discussed. Most of these wavelengths can be generated by solid-state lasers, which are more attractive pump sources than the chemical lasers (HBr, HF) used previously to pump high-pressure CO/sub 2/ and N/sub 2/O lasers. Including previously studied pump schemes, there are altogether 14 possible pump transitions in CO/sub 2/ and N/sub 2/O in the 1.4-4.5- mu m region. Numerical laser simulations are carried out to compare all of these pump schemes. Assuming 10 J/cm/sup 2/ pump energy in a pulse of 100 ns FWHM, and 5% output coupling as the only resonator loss, the calculated energy conversion efficiencies are in the range of 6-40%. The pump thresholds are in the range of 0.1-3.1 J/cm/sup 2/.<
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