Control of the radiation parameters of a copper vapour laser

The possibility of controlling the pulse shape and duration and the beam divergence of a copper vapour laser operating in the mode of double pump pulses, when the first pulse excites lasing in the active medium and the second amplifies it. It is shown that a change in the delay of the second pump pulse relative to the laser pulse initiated by the first pump pulse allows an efficient control of the laser-radiation characteristics. In this case, the coefficient of laser-radiation conversion into a beam with a diffraction-limited divergence may reach ~80 %.