Frequency-tunable optically pumped carbon monoxide laser

Single-line frequency-tunable lasing was observed in an optically pumped, repetitively pulsed, room-temperature CO laser for the first time. The R(0) and R(7) ro-vibrational transitions in the (2,0) overtone of CO at 2.3 /spl mu/m were optically pumped with a high-energy optical parametric oscillator. Single-line lasing was observed on (2,1) P(2)-P(17) transitions and R(0)-R(11) transitions (covering wavelengths within the range 4.6-4.9 /spl mu/m) when using a diffraction grating as the spectrally selective reflector of the laser resonator. The observed CO laser pulse lengths were /spl sim/10/sup -7/ s with peak power up to 10/sup 4/ W. The influence of CO pressure, the addition of buffer gas (He, Ar), Q-factor of the laser resonator, and the pump pulse energy on CO laser pulse temporal characteristics and output energy spectral distribution was studied experimentally.