An efficient gas isolator for CO2 10-micron P-branch laser operation

Because of the very high small-signal gain in the power amplifiers currently in use in the LASL CO2 Laser-Fusion Program, the development of effective broadband isolators has received considerable attention. Saturable absorbing gases appear to be the best candidate for an effective isolator to protect high-power CO2 laser systems against parasitic self-lasing. This paper describes the development of a broadband gas isolator based on SF6 as a saturable absorber which has shown to be effective for use in a multiline CO2 laser system.