Electron-beam-controlled laser utilizing the first overtones of the vibrational–rotational transitions in the $CO$ molecule. II. Energy characteristics

An experimental investigation was made of the dependences of the output energy and efficiency of a pulsed electron-beam-controlled laser utilizing the first overtones of the $CO$ molecule on the power and energy of excitation, characteristics of the active gas mixture, and $Q$ factor of the resonator. In an apparatus having an active volume of 4 liters, a $CO-N_2-He$ gas mixture was excited and specific output energies of around 10 J/(liter$\cdot$Amagat) were realized at an efficiency of $\thicksim5$ procent. It was found that in order to achieve high laser energy characteristics one must suppress lasing at the fundamental frequencies and use long relatively lowpower pump pulses. A qualitative explanation is put forward for the observed behavior.