100-ps pulse generation and amplification in the iodine laser

Abstract
We have generated 100–200-ps iodine 1.315-μ laser pulses by means of the free induction decay (FID) technique. A 2.5-ns switched-out pulse from a mode-locked oscillator is truncated by generating its own gas breakdown in the focal spot between two lenses and then passed through a hot I2 absorber operated in the small-signal regime to generate a short FID pulse. Streak camera studies of such pulses showed that the breakdown time was about 40 ps and the FID pulses had a full width at half-maximum of about 100–200 ps. Subsequent amplification of a pulse showed that the 4-GHz bandwidth of the atmospheric pressure iodine amplifier was insufficient to cover the pulse spectrum. A calculation of the pulse width based on the reduction of the small-signal gain due to such spectral considerations also gave pulse widths in the 100–200-ps range.

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