Carbon dioxide laser operating upon a vibrational-rotational transition

Claim 2

An infrared laser comprising: an active medium including carbon dioxide, means for selectively populating a first vibrational-rotational level of said carbon dioxide, which vibrational-rotational level is optically connected to a lower vibrational-rotational level via radiation at about 10 microns, to establish a population inversion therebetween, and means for resonating said radiation to produce coherent radiation at about 10 microns, including means for abstracting a portion of said coherent radiation, the means for selectively populating the first vibrational-rotational level of carbon dioxide comprising means for forming spaced first and second regions, means for flowing nitrogen gas through said first region, means for heating said nitrogen gas in said first region to a temperature producing substantially no ionization of said nitrogen to populate an excited level thereof, means for flowing said carbon dioxide gas and said heated nitrogen gas through said second region to mix and thereby to populate said first vibrational-rotational level of said carbon dioxide gas, the resonating means being associated with said second region.