Abstract

The atomic-iodine hyperfine structure is shown to produce anomalous dispersion effects on its hyperfine laser transition at 1.315 μm whenever reasonable small-signal gains are available (~1% cm). This dispersion effect is linearly dependent on the iodine inversion density. Such an anomalous dispersion effect may produce strong phase-induced mode–media interactions for all the lower-gain iodine hyperfine transitions in any low pressure (<50 Torr) atomic-iodine laser. Fortunately, the highest-gain hyperfine transition, F′ = 3 → F″ = 4, has the smallest amount of additional phase shift (or refractivity) introduced by this anomalous dispersion. All the other transitions experience much larger anomalous dispersion effects. This condition should act as an internal frequency discriminator, forcing the iodine to lase on the highest-gain hyperfine transition.

© 1981 Optical Society of America

Dispersion of gases in atomic iodine lasers at 1.315 μm

K. M. Swift, L. A. Schlie, and R. D. Rathge
Appl. Opt. 27(21) 4377-4384 (1988)

Saturation of anomalous dispersion in cw HF lasers

P. W. Milonni
Appl. Opt. 20(9) 1571-1578 (1981)

Transition probability and collision broadening of the 1.3-μm transition of atomic iodine

R. Engleman, B. A. Palmer, and S. J. Davis
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73(11) 1585-1589 (1983)

Inhomogeneous broadening effects in multimode cw chemical lasers

Harold Mirels
Appl. Opt. 20(2) 362-373 (1981)

Pressure shifts and broadenings in the arc spectrum of krypton

D. A. Jackson
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