Review of Literature on Electrical and Optical Properties of Plasmas in Molecular Discharges and Basic Information on Co₂ Lasers

Abstract

Patel et al. [2] were the first to report, in 1964, the stimulated emission of λ= 10.6μ radiation of about 1 mW power due to vibrational transitions in the CO2 molecule. Later investigations, which were largely empirical, resulted in improved output power and efficiency. This became possible mainly because of the addition of nitrogen, helium, water vapor, and xenon, and also because of the optimization of the resonator structure, A detailed review of the work done on CO₂ lasers up to 1967 can be found in [1, 3].