Saturation behavior of SF6at high pressure and laser intensity

An experimental study of the saturable absorption of SF
6
at high pressure with high incident laser flux is reported. Experiments with a high-pulse-power CO
2
laser show 15 orders of magnitude change in transmittance of SF
6
(17 torr pressure) at the
P
(16) CO
2
line and apparent saturation of the residual absorption at
P
(20) and
P
(22) CO
2
wavelength. Comparison of these results with behavior predicted by a four-level model yields reasonable agreement over certain intensity ranges.