Tunable te-CO2 laser-pumped formaldehyde far-infrared lasers: Offsets, assignment, and superfluorescence

Sixty and three absorption transitions in D₂CO and H₂CO, respectively, have produced a number of far infrared laser lines when they are pumped by an etalon-tuned TE-CO₂ laser. Almost all the absorption transitions pumped previously by a free runing TE-CO₂ laser have been efficiently pumped by the etalon tuned CO₂ laser and found to have offset within ±500 MHz from the line-center of the relevant CO₂ pump lines. 22 (1) absorption and 63 (4) emission lines of D₂CO (H₂CO) are assigned. Some of these lines have generated superfluorescence. In paticular, the D₂CO 319-m line pumped by CO₂-9P(32) delivered an output energy of approximately one half that of the well-known D₂O 66-m. It is shown that a large electric dipole moment and an appreciable amount of fractional population in the lower level of the pump transition of this line are responsible to the superfluorescence.     

Prediction of the thermal properties of CO2, CO, and Xe laser media

Approximation functions describing the experimental data of thermal conductivity and viscosity of chosen gases (CO₂, N₂, He, Xe, CO, O₂, Ar) are given in the paper. Introduced formulas allow to predict thermal conductivity and temperature distribution of typical high-power laser gas mixture. Examples of temperature distribution in RF excited CO₂, CO, and Xe laser media are shown. Knowledge of the temperature distribution in the laser cavity can be useful for predicting the general properties of laser.     

Investigation into simultaneous FIR laser emissions in CH2F2 using a homodyne detection system

Simultaneous FIR laser emissions in CH₂F₂ have been investigated using a Homodyne Transmit and Receive System. A new FIR cascade line at 196. 1um has been observed and assigned. The investigation has shown that the normal techniques for determining FIR laser efficiencies may not be completely adequate.     

Assignments of optically pumped CH3OD laser lines

Fifteen laser lines from CH₃OD pumped by a CO₂ laser are assigned to specific rotational energy transitions. These assignments have been obtained from the approximation that, except for one constant, the molecular constants in the excited CO stretching state are same as those in the ground state.     

Spectroscopic comparison of aluminium welding plasmas produced by high power CO and CO2 lasers

Welding tests on the aluminium alloy AlMgSi1 (6082) by the use of a high power CO laser with good beam quality show higher penetration depths and better weld seam quality compared with the results obtained with a commercial industrial CO₂ laser. Spectroscopy of the laser-induced welding plasma shows a strong decrease of the intensities of Al(II) lines and no appearance of Al(III) lines in CO laser aluminium welding compared with CO₂ laser welding at the same process parameters. This is a consequence of the shorter 5 to 5.6 μm wavelength of the CO laser leading to reduced beam-plasma interaction.     

CO2 laser assisted removal of UO2 and ThO2 particulates from metal surface

Pulsed laser assisted removal of uranium dioxide and thorium dioxide particulates from stainless steel surface have been studied using a TEA CO₂ laser. Decontamination efficiency is measured as a function of laser fluence and number of pulses. Threshold fluence for the removal of UO₂ particulates has been found to be lower than that required for the removal ThO₂ particulates. Usage of a ZnSe substrate, that is transparent to the laser wavelength used here, enabled us to decouple the cleaning effect arising out of absorption in the particulates from that in the substrate and has contributed towards understanding the mechanism responsible for cleaning. The experimental observations are also corroborated by simple theoretical calculations.     

Investigation of chemical decomposition of CCl4 on TiO2 near room temperature

Dissociative adsorption of CCl₄ on TiO₂ at 35 °C has been studied by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and electron spin resonance. CCl₄ decompose to form CO, CO₂, and CO₃ on the surface, at such a low temperature, in which CO₂ formation is not from CO oxidation on TiO₂, but CO₃ can be produced by CO and CO₂ adsorption. The Cl generated from CCl₄ decomposition is left on the surface and bonded to titanium ions. Mineralization of CCl₄ on TiO₂ involves the lattice oxygens. Thermodynamical driving force and possible reaction routes for CO and CO₂ formation in the CCl₄ decomposition on TiO₂ are discussed.     

An injection-locked single-mode tea CO2 laser for SMM laser pumping

A D₂O laser has been developed for collective Thomson scattering measurements of ion temperature in high temperature plasmas. A pulse duration and a spectral width of a high power D₂O laser has been successfully controlled for this purpose, by using a TEA CO₂ laser injection-locked by an etalon-tuned TEA CO₂ laser as a pump source.     

Mathematical modeling of tunable TEA CO2 lasers

A mathematical model, based on the Landau–Teller equations of six-temperature model for the CO₂–N₂–He–CO system, to describe the process of dynamic emission in tunable TEA CO₂ lasers is introduced. In this model, the Landau–Teller equations are rewritten with regard to fine longitudinal mode frequencies in the laser resonator. These revised equations can be utilized to estimate the laser output spectra as well as other laser output pulse parameters. Examples are given to show the modeling results of non-tunable, grating tuned or injection-locking TEA CO₂ lasers.     

Analysis of excimer laser annealing of amorphous SiGe on La2O3//Si structures

The reduction of complementary metal oxide semiconductor dimensions through transistor scaling is in part limited by the SiO₂ dielectric layer thickness. Among the materials evaluated as alternative gate dielectrics one of the leading candidate is La₂O₃ due to its high permittivity and thermodynamic stability. However, during device processing, thermal annealing can promote deleterious interactions between the silicon substrate and the high-k dielectric degrading the desired oxide insulating properties.The possibility to grow poly-SiGe on top of La₂O₃//Si by laser assisted techniques therefore seems to be very attractive. Low thermal budget techniques such as pulsed laser deposition and crystallization can be a good choice to reduce possible interface modifications due to their localized and limited thermal effect.In this work the laser annealing by ArF excimer laser irradiation of amorphous SiGe grown on La₂O₃//Si has been analysed theoretically by a numerical model based on the heat conduction differential equation with the aim to control possible modifications at the La₂O₃//Si interface. Simulations have been carried out using different laser energy densities (0.26-0.58 J/cm²), different La₂O₃ film thickness (5-20 nm) and a 50 nm, 30 nm thick amorphous SiGe layer. The temperature distributions have been studied in both the two films and substrate, the melting depth and interfaces temperature have been evaluated. The fluences ranges for which the interfaces start to melt have been calculated for the different configurations.Thermal profiles and interfaces melting point have shown to be sensitive to the thickness of the La₂O₃ film, the thicker the film the lower the temperature at Si interface.Good agreement between theoretical and preliminary experimental data has been found.According to our results the oxide degradation is not expected during the laser crystallization of amorphous Si_0.7Ge_0.3 for the examined ranges of film thickness and fluences.     

Diode laser measurement of line strengths and air-broadening coefficients of CO2 and CO in the 1.57 μm region for combustion diagnostics

Spectral measurements of two line pairs of CO₂ and CO in the temperature range 300–1000 K at 1.573 µm were performed using a fiber-coupled distributed feedback (DFB) diode laser. The two line pairs can be used in a tunable diode laser (TDL) absorption sensor for simultaneously detecting CO₂ and CO gas in a single scan of the diode laser. The spectral parameters (line strengths, air-broadening coefficients and the temperature exponent n) of the two pairs are presented. The measured data agree well with existing databases (HITRAN 2004 and HITRAN 2008), the discrepancies being less than 5% for most of the probed transitions. Although the HITRAN database is a useful tool for sensor design, we found that laboratory measurements of the spectroscopic data for the line pair selected for high-temperature sensors are necessary for establishing the uncertainty for accurate measurements.     

Deep penetration welding using a CO laser with an unstable resonator

An unstable resonator (M = 2) has been applied to reduce the beam divergence of a gas-dynamically cooled supersonic CO laser operating at 105 K in a semiclosed gas cycle. A 4.7 kW laser beam with a total divergence of 2.5 mrad is obtained with an efficiency of 9.4%. The results of welding experiments are compared with those using a CO₂ laser. The weld depths obtained with the CO₂ laser are drastically reduced using argon as the assist gas, whereas the results with the CO laser are independent of the assist gas because of the lower plasma absorption coefficient for the shorter CO laser wavelength.     

Diffractive scanning mechanism for laser marker

We present a new idea of marking based on spectral properties of CO₂ laser radiation. The idea has been illustrated on RF excited waveguide CO₂ lasers in different configurations: single channel, multi-waveguide and slab-waveguide ones. The pulse operation of the laser has been considered as well. The advantage of the presented diffraction marker is avoiding complicated and fallible mechanical elements. The only executive elements of the marker are a diffraction grating and a piezoceramic transducer. It has been shown that the slab-waveguide configuration of the RF excited CO₂ laser equipped with an unstable resonator is the most promising configuration for application to the diffraction marker.     

A computer model of a transverse discharge cw CO laser

A kinetic model has been developed for the investigation of the novel performance of a CO laser, on which efficient extraction of laser power was obtained by exciting a subsonic gas mixture of CO/N₂/He/O₂ through transverse dc discharge. Kinetic equations for direct excitation by electron impact, V-V and V-R/T energy transfer, and stimulated emission are coupled with a semi-one-dimensional flow model. Careful consideration is devoted especially to the V-V transfer process of CO–N₂ and N₂–N₂. The laser power was calculated by a constant gain method. The laser output performance, examined as a function of gas mixture ratio, temperature, flow velocity, and discharge current, was in good agreement with the experiment.     

Comparison Between Single-Longitudinal-Mode and Two-Longitudinal-Mode Pumping Cavity OPSMMWL

A CO₂ infrared laser system with a etalon to be the longitudinal mode select equipment was set up to be the optically pump source, as well as a mini NH3 with 20cm long sample tube to be the sub-millimeter wave laser. CO2-9R(16) line was chose to pump the mini-NH3 SMMW laser, and 90.4um SMMW line was obtained by single-longtudinal-mode or two-longitudinal-mode pumping. Experimental comparison of output power and operating gas pressure between single and two-longitudinal-mode OPSMMWL were studied. It was found that the two-longitudinal-mode OPSMMWL could get higher output power and broader spectrum, existed a lower operating gas pressure and wider range of operating gas pressure. These experimental results verified the theoretical calculations before.     

Electronic spectroscopy of some isoelectronic MM′(CO)10 (M,M′ = Mn,Cr, Tc,Mo, Re,W) from time-dependent density functional theory

The electronic spectra of 12 isoelectronic binuclear decacarbonyls MM′(CO)₁₀ have been calculated, using time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). The geometry has been optimised using the B3LYP functional. The energy of some well-known bands is calculated with the same functional for Mn₂(CO)₁₀ and other compounds as a test, using the same functional. The calculated values for the energy and the oscillator strength are in good fitting with experimental and reference data, and they show very small dependence on the basis. Then, the same calculation has been carried out for all the compounds up to 150 states. The strongest calculated transitions are summarised and assigned.     

Diode laser absorption spectroscopy measurement of linestrengths and pressure broadening coefficients of the methane 2ν3 band at elevated temperatures

A diode laser sensor based on absorption spectroscopy has been developed for the measurement of spectroscopic parameters in the R (3) and R (4) manifolds of 2ν₃ band of CH₄. Individual linestrengths of each transition are determined for a range of temperatures. In addition, collision-broadened half-widths for CO₂, N₂, H₂O, CH₄, and CO collision partners are measured as a function of temperature and pressure for these strongly overlapped transitions. From this, temperature dependence of the collision half-width for each collision partner is determined. Using a new method for calculation of collisional broadening at high temperatures for strongly overlapped transitions makes these transitions accessible for spectroscopy.     

Acoustooptic extension of the frequency tunability of CW CO2 lasers: New FIR lasers emissions from CH3OH and13CH3OH

We have increased the frequency tunability of our CW waveguide CO₂ lasers by means of an acoustooptic amplitude modulator, operating at the fixed frequency of 90 MHz. The up-shifted, or down-shifted, laser optical sideband can be generated independently by adjusting the orientation of the modulator. The efficiency is larger than 50%. The frequency tunability of the CO₂ laser around each laser line is thus increased by 180 MHz. To demonstrate the possibilities of this method, a source composed of the above modulator and of a CW, 300 MHz tunable waveguide CO₂ laser has been used for the search of new large offset FIR laser lines from optically pumped CH₃OH and¹³CH₃OH molecules. As a result 15 and 10 new large offset laser lines were discovered respectively. New assignments of some laser lines are also proposed. We have also measured the Stark effect, the offset, and the polarization of other already known lines. In particular a Stark effect frequency tuning of about 1 GHz is demonstrated for a laser line at 208.399 m.     

FIR Laser Lines from CH3OD: A Review

The methanol isotopic species CH₃OD has also proved to be an efficient and powerful medium to generate radiation in the far infrared (FIR) region. After the critical review of 1994, six papers have been published dealing with new FIR laser lines from this molecule. As a consequence of the use of wide tunability waveguide CO₂ lasers as well as a new pulsed CO₂ laser operating at hot and sequential bands, as of optical pumping sources, the total number of the FIR laser lines increased from 122 in 1994 to 227 today. In this communication we present an updated and complete catalogue of FIR laser lines generated from CH₃OD. Information on wavelength, offset, relative polarization, intensity, and optimum operation pressure is generally available.     

Infrared diode laser spectroscopy of the ν3 fundamental band of the PO2 free radical

The asymmetric stretching fundamental of the PO₂ free radical in its ground electronic state has been measured between 1280 and 1360 cm⁻¹ using diode laser absorption spectroscopy. This new data set has been combined in a fit with an earlier, smaller infrared data set and with pure rotational transitions measured by microwave and laser magnetic resonance spectroscopies to provide a new set of parameters for the ground and ν₃ = 1 states of A₁ PO₂. These parameters can be used to calculate line positions in this band for transitions up to N = 50.