title: Study of performance of a He-Ne laser having an annular gain zone.
abstract: A He-Ne laser with an annular gain zone is studied theoretically. It is demonstrated that the He-Ne medium in the annular discharge zone possesses enough gain to maintain laser oscillation. A multipass ring resonator, which is composed of two annular spherical mirrors, is described, and it is shown that the resonator is suitable for extracting optical energy from the He-Ne medium in the annular gain zone. Considering the availability of population inversion in the traveling-wave cavity and the influence of the crossover of the folded light beam in the resonator on the output power, a calculation formula for the output power of the laser with the multipass ring resonator is given. Calculating results prove that a 1 W output of the He-Ne laser can be obtained by a 1 m length annular discharge zone.
authors.affiliation: Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. liyude15@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Yude
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jinglun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Junping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Yuanjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang