Subnanosecond Multi-Gigawatt Co2-Laser

A semiconductor switching technique has been utilized to produce 30-300 ps variable duration CO2 laser pulses of 0.5-MW peak power, Eight passes through a 1.2-m long, UV-preionized, 3-atm TE CO2 amplifier raise the output laser peak power to the 10(10) W level. Sampling the amplifier gain in linear and saturated regimes using CO2 laser radiation ranging from CW to 30 ps pulse length permits comparison with computer modeling of picosecond CO2 pulse amplification, The potential for further peak power scaling of picosecond molecular lasers is discussed.