"Bleaching" of the atmosphere for quasimonochromatic CO2 laser radiation

A study is made of the influence of the finite width of the CO₂ lasing line on the transmission of radiation along an atmospheric path. Numerical calculations are used to show that an increase in the half-width of the lasing line to several hundredths of a reciprocal centimeter can improve appreciably the transmission of laser radiation by the atmosphere (for a vertical path extending from ground level to the upper boundary of the atmosphere, the transmission may be almost doubled compared with the monochromatic case). Transmission enhancement due to detuning of the lasing line from the resonant absorption line is also increased when the finite width of the lasing line is taken into account.