Gasdynamic perturbations of the gas stream in pulseperiodic CO2 lasers. I. Convective removal of the heated gas from the discharge region

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer was used to investigate the gasdynamic phenomena which limit the pulserepetition frequency of pulse-periodic CO₂ lasers. The experiments were performed in nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and a laser mixture, in an apparatus designed to simulate laser conditions.