Intracavity absorption line shape and the super-regen model

Intracavity absorption has been observed in a short lived excited state of helium produced in an RF discharge inside the dye laser cavity. The line shape consists of an absorption feature with two symmetric enhancement wings. The central absorption feature is considerably broadened over the natural width, and this is shown to be in agreement with the superregen model. It is also shown that under certain conditions the ICA signal inverts so that the central feature becomes enhanced and the symmetric wings appear as absorption. This result is also in agreement with predictions of the model.