Tunable Lasers Handbook

4

CO₂ Isotope Lasers and Their Applications in Tunable Laser Spectroscopy^*

Charles Freed,     Lincoln Laboratory and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lexington, Massachusetts

1. INTRODUCTION

CO₂ molecular-gas lasers were invented by C. K. N. Patel in 1964 [1, 2], about four years after the first practical demonstration of a laser by Maiman [3]. Patel’s search for more efficient lasers led him to the first experiments utilizing vibrational-rotational transitions of gas molecules, starting with CO₂. Indeed, it would be difficult to overemphasize the significance of Patel’s many sided contributions to laser physics in general and to the development of CO₂ lasers in particular. ...