Broadening of the cw laser emission spectrum of an electric-discharge CO laser by a spectrally inhomogeneous output mirror

A method is proposed for broadening the laser emission spectrum of a CO laser by a spectrally inhomogeneous output mirror containing nonquarter-wave dielectric layers. Experiments revealed broadening of the wavelength range by roughly a factor of two together with an increase in the number of laser emission lines which were simultaneously present in the spectrum, mainly due to transitions having high vibrational numbers. Methods are proposed for using the mirror to broaden the tuning range over the lines and to raise the total laser output power.