A comparative study of a pulsed co te laser and a pulsed CS₂/O₂ chemical laser

Experimental studies on a pulsed CO TE laser and a pulsed CS₂/O₂ chemical laser are performed with the same laser apparatus, and the two schemes are compared. The output energy of the CO TE laser is considerably enhanced by the addition of N₂, He and SF₆. When 0.5-Torr SF₆ is added to 35-Torr CO, the output energy increases 4.7-fold over that without SF₆. With the CS₂/O₂ chemical laser, output energies more than 3 times those of the CO TE laser are obtained. From spectroscopic measurements of the CS₂/O₂ chemical laser, many vibrational-rotational transition lines are observed in the V=15-14 to V=5-4 vibrational bands. For the CO TE laser, all the observed lasing lines are in the vibrational bands from V=11-10 to V=9-8. With the addition of 0.5-Torr SF₆, the vibrational transition bands extend through V=12-11 to V=6-5.