Single mode oscillation of TEA CO2 laser with an interference resonator

An effective single-longitudinal mode (SLM) pulse TEA CO2 laser operation was demonstrated using a Michelson’s type resonator with a tilting Fabry–Perot etalon. A modified numerical model of the interference resonator was investigated for designing the laser. The experimentally measured values were found to have good agreement with the numerical model. A pulse width of about 90 ns and the maximum pulse energy of about 300 mJ were achieved at 10.59 μm in SLM and TEM00 mode. The reliability of producing SLM pulses was 100% and there was no damage on the etalon. By turning the interference resonator, the SLM output was tuned 44 lines of the CO2 spectrum.