Abstract

Present ps-pulse optical-free-induction-decay (OFID) CO₂ laser systems^[1] produce highpower 10 μm pulses with an excellent contrast ratio and adjustable duration between 30 μs and 300 μs.^[2] All these systems apply OFID in hot CO₂ gas as optical filter in spite of the fact that the Michelson interferometer, the Fabry-Perot etalon, the grating monochromator, the quarterwave antireflection coating used in reflection and resonant absorbers have been proposed for this purpose.^[1] Obviously, none of these was successful.

© 1992 IQEC