Demonstration of an iodine laser pumped by an air-helium electric discharge

Herein the authors report on the demonstration of gain and a continuous-wave laser on the 1315 nm transition of atomic iodine using the energy transferred to I(2P1/2) from O2(a 1Δ) produced by both radio-frequency and microwave electric discharges sustained in a dry air-He-NO gas mixture. Active oxygen and nitrogen species were observed downstream of the discharge region. Downstream of the discharge, cold gas injection was employed to raise the gas density and lower the temperature of the continuous gas flow. Gain of 0.0062% cm-1 was obtained and the laser output power was 32 mW in a supersonic flow cavity.