Up-conversion investigation of the temporal structure of pulses emitted by a high-pressure CO2 laser

An investigation was made of the temporal structure of pulses emitted from an electron-beam-controlled high-pressure CO₂ laser. These pulses were converted nonlinearly to the visible range in a proustite crystal. The temporal resolution of the method was 3 nsec and it was limited by the band width of the recording system. It was demonstrated experimentally that mode locking occurred when the gas pressure was 3 atm. The advantages and shortcomings of the investigation method were analyzed.