Abstract

Optically pumped submillimeterwave (SMMW) lasers are commonly built using a circular cylindrical waveguide tube, which guides the SMMW laser beam and confines the coaxially travelling midinfrared (MIR) pump beam. Inside this tube is the low-pressure laser-active gas with consequently small energy storage capability. Due to the low quantum efficiency it has to transport most of the absorbed pump energy to the walls by diffusion. The idea that diffusion might be the limiting factor for the performance of SMMW lasers up to now lead to the construction of a SMMW-laser with a sandwich resonator. The name “sandwich” indicates that the SMMW waveguide consists of a pair of parallel metallic slabs with the laser-gas in between (this configuration has been named “slab resonator” elsewhere).^[1]

© 1992 IQEC