Flashlamp-pumped iodine laser with an optically thick medium

A procedure is described for numerical calculations of the temporal and radial dependences of the laser radiation power and energy and also of the refractive index for free-oscillation and inversion-storage conditions in the case of a cylindrically symmetric pump source positioned directly in the gaseous active medium. Some results of these calculations as applied to a $CF_3J$ iodine photodissociation laser are presented. An analysis is made of the dependences of the laser characteristics on the active gas pressure, degree of dilution, flashlamp radius, resonator loss factor, and pump pulse profile and duration.