Advancement and problems of fullerene-oxygen-iodine laser

The methods of improving the efficiency of a fullerene-oxygen-iodine laser are investigated. In the course of this research, we developed new fullerene coatings that possess better mechanical and radiative hardness, as well as higher efficiency of singlet oxygen generation. We show that, by using these coatings, the energy yield per unit volume of the active medium can be increased to 9 J/l, which is almost two times higher than the previous result. The energy efficiency of the laser can also be increased by a factor of nearly two. At the same time, several problems were revealed that hinder the further improvement of the laser efficiency and its long-term operation with stable parameters of the output radiation. We outline principal approaches to further optimization of the laser design that would help to overcome the negative factors and make it possible to create a fullerene-oxygen-iodine laser with high and stable parameters of the output radiation.