Saturation kinetics of active medium of oxygen-iodine laser

The saturated gain in an oxygen iodine medium was determined as a function of the intensity of the applied field and the kinetic contacts of the elementary processes, making it possible to find the saturation intensity and to estimate the characteristic intraresonator intensity. The spectral energy characteristics of chemical oxygen iodine lasers were studied under conditions of irregular broadening and finite relaxation rates. The basic processes determining the field saturation kinetics are the exchange of the electron energy of atomic iodine with molecular oxygen, translational iodine atom relaxation, Van Derr Waals mixing of 2 sub P sub 3/2 sublevels and mixing of 2 sub P sub 1/2 sublevels during exchange interaction with oxygen molecules. Translational and superfine relaxation processes were shown to play an exceptionally important role in the formation of the lasing spectrum. The influence of anomalous dispersion effects on divergence of laser radiation in the multimode lasing condition is discussed. The finite translational relaxation rate reduces the output power of the laser severalfold, and increases the length of the lasing zone.