title: Design of a compact cw chemical HF/DF laser using a microwave discharge.
abstract: A compact cw chemical HF/DF laser is described. The laser system consists of a microwave discharge using a surfatron to dissociate SF6 molecules mixed with He, a reaction chamber engineered to provide a fast mixing of reacting atoms and molecules, and an optical resonator which includes a concave mirror and a blazed grating for line selection, both mounted on a rigid Invar frame. The laser oscillates on a single line single TEM00 mode over many P transitions of HF and DF with a typical intensity fluctuation of 5% and a frequency jitter of about 30 MHz.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'optique et de spectroscopie, Departement de Genie Physique, Ecole Polytechnique, Campus de l'Universite de Montreal, Case Postale 6079, Succ. A Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3A7, Canada.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bertrand
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Monchalin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pitre
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gagné