Mode locking of a CW supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser

This paper presents the results of the first mode-locking experiments on a supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL). Mode locking has been achieved using an acoustooptic modulator (AOM) and lasing demonstrated on the TEM/sub 00/ modes with a small intracavity aperture. A dc magnetic field was used to increase the number of axial modes and a peak power of 2.5 kW has been reached with a pulse width of 2.1 ns at a repetition rate of 43.68 MHz.