Multi-line ammonia laser utilizing intra-molecular energy transfer via a buffer gas

Claim 1

A laser comprising: a housing; a quantity of working gas contained within said housing, said working gas comprising ammonia and a buffer gas which is chemically non-reactive with ammonia; a carbon dioxide laser tuned to the R(30) transition of the 001-020 band for providing a pumping laser beam at a wavelength of approximately 9.2 μm; means for causing said pumping laser beam to irradiate said working gas to excite ammonia molecules from the symmetric ground vibrational manifold to the antisymmetric ν 2 =1 vibrational manifold; the molecules of said buffer gas having an absence of energy levels corresponding to wave numbers in the range from about (725-kT) cm -1 to about (1087+kT) cm -1 , where T is the temperature of said working gas in degrees Kelvin, and k is Boltzmann's constant approximately given by 0.695 wave numbers per degree Kelvin; said buffer gas being at a pressure such that the rate of rotational relaxation transitions in the ν 2 =1 vibrational manifold due to collisions between buffer gas and ammonia molecules is greater than the pump rate for exciting ammonia molecules from the symmetric ground vibrational manifold to the antisymmetric ν 2 =1 vibrational manifold, and such that said pump rate is greater than the rate of vibrational relaxation transitions from the ν 2 =1 vibrational manifold to the ground vibrational manifold due to collisions between ammonia and buffer gas molecules; and an optical resonator in optical communication with said working gas for supporting laser oscillation over at least the wavelength range extending from about 9.3 μm to about 13.8 μm.