Investigation of the power stability of a cw carbon monoxide laser

The results are given of investigations of the output-power stability of a sealed cw carbon monoxide laser, simultaneously emitting as a result of a large number of cascade-coupled vibrational-rotational transitions. The investigations were carried out taking into account the spectral composition of the laser radiation after different degrees of monochromatization (with spectrally selective and broad-band optical resonators, a multimoding regime, and suppression of high-order modes). It was found that, despite the relatively large fluctuations in the output power of each of the lasing transitions, the integrated laser output power of a multiresonance active medium and a broad-band resonator showed only very small variations. A short discussion is given of the mechanism whereby the power fluctuations of the individual vibrational—rotational components are compensated in the integrated nonselected laser beam. Practical recommendations are given concerning the applications of cw carbon monoxide lasers, with spectrally selective and nonselective optical resonators, in technology and in spectroscopic investigations.