Self-pulsing in lasers with transverse flow of active medium

A numerical analysis of the lasing kinetics in an oscillator-amplifier system is carried out for a gas laser with cw pumping and transverse flow of the active medium. Under certain conditions, which depend on the relation between the relaxation constants of the medium and the transit time, on the losses in the resonator, and on several other factors, steady-state lasing becomes unstable and gives way to a periodic self-pulsing regime. The boundaries of the region of parameter values of the system in which self-pulsing operation occurs are studied. Because of the increase in the peak output power achieved in this case, this regime may be of practical interest for industrial lasers.