Abstract

Laser imagers have been the subject of widespread investigation since the advent of lasers. In this connection, great interest has been shown in gas lasers, especially in cw ion sources that provide three basic colors for color imaging. Yet the image size and transmission range obtained from this kind of lasers are limited by their low efficiency. Moreover, because laser light must of necessity be passed through modulators, single-mode operation has to be used, which further reduces the efficiency.

© 1996 Optical Society of America