Pulsed electron-beam-controlled carbon monoxide laser amplifiers. II. Amplification of radiation pulses from an electron-beam-controlled CO laser with controlled spectral and temporal characteristics

The results are presented of experimental investigations of pulsed electron-beam-controlled CO laser amplifiers operating under conditions of spectral and temporal mismatch of the master oscillator and laser amplifier. The optimal regimes are found for amplifying electron-beam-controlled CO laser radiation pulses with specified spectral and temporal characteristics. It is shown that amplification of radiation pulses having a spectrum with one rotational component in each of 5–7 cascade-coupled vibrational bands can increase the laser radiation spectral energy density by a factor of 4–6 compared with amplification of radiation pulses from an electron-beam-controlled CO laser operating in the nonselective free-running regime, without lowering the efficiency of conversion of the pump energy to laser radiation energy. A specific output energy of ~ 80 J · liter ^– 1 · amagat ^– 1 with an efficiency of ~ 20% was achieved in a superregenerative CO laser amplifier. The peak radiation power increased by two orders of magnitude when multifrequency pulses of microsecond duration were amplified. When the number of microsecond pulses being amplified was increased from one to five and their repetition period was greater than the time for an inverted population to be reestablished, the specific output energy rose from 10 to 25 J · liter ^–1 · amagat ^–1.