Propagation of an intensity-modulated laser beam through a pulsed CO2 amplifier

A theoretical study was made (by a self-consistent solution of the equations of vibrational kinetics, hydrodynamics, and quasioptics) of the influence of self-interaction of laser radiation on the transmission of a beam through a CO₂ amplifier. It was found that for times exceeding the time for collisional decay of the upper active level the radiation wavefront becomes unstable in the presence of small-scale perturbations of the transverse structure of the beam. It was shown that the harmful influence of the self-interaction on the divergence can be weakened by raising the intensity of the incident beam and the gain of the amplifier.