Single Longitudinal Mode Operation Of A Continuously Tunable High Pressure TE-CO2 Laser

A modified Fabry-Perot interferometer along with a thin tilted etalon has been used successfully to obtain single longitudinal mode pulses from a 10 atmosphere pressure CO2 laser. Reliability of 85% was observed for cavity lengths up to 2.8 meters. Continuous tuning over a frequency range of 15 cm-1 was obtained on both the R and the P branches of the 9 μm and 10 μm transitions using a grating.