Abstract

Stimulated Raman scattering provides a powerful and relatively efficient source of tunable coherent far-infrared (FIR) radiation.^1,2 The pump field is usually an intense multimode CO₂ laser. Most theoretical studies of FIR lasers consider the pump to be a single-mode field. We present some analytic results for the gain of optically pumped FIR lasers when the pump field has a large number of cavity modes with spacing Δ. The molecular medium can have three or four levels.

© 1987 Optical Society of America