Iodine photodissociation laser pumped by radiation from a high-current discharge with a return current conductor

An investigation was made of the energy, spectral, and angular characteristics of the radiation emitted by an iodine photodissociation laser (pumped by a high-current electric discharge with a return current conductor) utilizing CF₃J–CO₂ or CF₃J–SF₆ mixtures diluted with Xe, Kr, Ar, and He. It is shown that when the rate of coupling of the electric energy into the discharge is moderately low, the radiation energy, optical inhomogeneities of the active medium, and domain of existence of high grad n depend on the ratio of the molecular weight of the mixture to the number of atoms per molecule. When the refractive index gradients of the active medium are large, the divergence of the laser radiation is mainly governed by grad n in this zone and depends weakly on the resonator length.