Abstract

Transversal RF excitation of molecular active media offers a lot of advantages for laser design, but the realization of them both in a slab or an annular geometries requires new types of resonators. For a slab laser we have investigated a 3-mirrors stable multipasse resonator; in out recent experiments we have a possibility to vary the effective length of the active medium from 3 to 21 double passes between two wall’s mirrors. It is shown, that the optimum number of such passes depends on the media amplification, mirror’s reflection losses and overlapping of the beams inside the cavity. This type of resonator is preferable for the active media with a moderate gain; it gives a higher power extraction from the large volumes of the active gases and a better quality of the output beam then other known stable and unstable resonators.

© 1996 IEEE