Radiative removal of lower laser level bottlenecking
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorLyle H. Taylor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Stimulated emission resulting from a secondary source of radiation transfers population from a lower laser level of a primary lasing transition to a third energy level which is not involved in the primary lasing of a laser system to reduce lower laser level bottlenecking.
Claims5
A method for minimizing lower laser level bottlenecking of the primary lasing transition to improve the performance of a laser system, comprising the step of,
- applying stimulated emission to transfer a portion of the lower laser level population to a third energy level which is not involved in the primary lasing when the lower laser level population is inverted with respect to the population of said third energy level.
A method for minimizing lower laser level bottlenecking of the primary lasing transition to improve the performance of a laser system, comprising the steps of,
- applying radiation from a secondary source to said laser system, which secondary radiation exhibits a predetermined wavelength for producing stimulated emission to transfer a portion of the lower laser level population to a third energy level which is not involved in the primary lasing, and
- causing said secondary radiation to traverse essentially the same laser medium volume of said laser system that is traversed by the primary lasing radiation of said laser system.
A method for minimizing the lower laser level bottlenecking in a 10.6 .mu.m CO.sub.2 gas laser amplifier wherein a population inversion between the 00.sup.0 1 and 10.sup.0 1 levels amplifies the 10.6 .mu.m laser radiation, comprising the steps of,
- applying stimulated emission by using a secondary radiation source to transfer a portion of the population from the 10.sup.0 1 level to the 01.sup.1 0 level when the population of the 10.sup.0 0 level is inverted with respect to the 01.sup.1 0 level.
In a laser system wherein the primary lasing transition occurs between an upper laser level and a lower laser level, the improvement for minimizing lower laser level bottlenecking to improve the performance of the laser system, said improvement comprising,
- a radiation source for developing secondary radiation for producing stimulated emission to transfer a portion of the lower laser level population to a third energy level which is not involved in the primary lasing transition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.