A miniature tunable TEA CO 2 laser using isotope 13 C 16 O 2 and 12 C 16 O 2

A miniature tunable TEA CO 2 laser using isotope 13 C 16 O 2 as the active medium is developed to extend the spectral range of CO 2 lasers for further application. The optimization of the energy parameters of the tunable TEA 13 C 16 O 2 laser and the same laser using 12 C 16 O 2 are studied. When a gas mixture ( 13 C 16 O 2 : N 2 : He = 1: 1: 3) at a total pressure of 6.4 × 10 4 Pa is used, the TEA 13 C 16 O 2 laser of a 45-cm 3 active volume obtains 51 emission lines in the [00 0 1–10 0 0] and [00 0 1–02 0 0] bands. The maximum pulse energy of the TEA 13 C 16 O 2 laser is about 357 mJ. The same laser using the conventional gas mixture ( 12 C 16 O 2 : N 2 : He = 1: 1: 3) at a pressure of 6.66 × 10 4 Pa is measured to obtain 69 laser emission lines and the maximum pulse energy of laser radiation is about 409 mJ.