Abstract
Stimulated emission on the BX band of CdI and isotopically enriched (98.6%) 114 CdI has been observed in a UV‐preionized, transverse discharge device with a gain length of 50 cm. For natural CdI, the laser energy is distributed among several transitions between 656 and 658 nm. The isotopically enriched 114CdI spectrum, in contrast, is dominated by a single line at 657.1 nm, which contains >50% of the output energy. With a high‐Q optical cavity, output energies >10 μJ have been measured in a 85‐ns full width at half‐maximum (FWHM) pulse.