INVESTIGATION OF THE DIVERGENCE OF RADIATION EMITTED BY A PHOTODISSOCIATION LASER WITH AN INHOMOGENEOUS ACTIVE MEDIUM.

An investigation was made of the dependence of the energy and divergence of laser radiation on the length of a plane-parallel resonator. The results were in agreement with estimates based on relationships derived in the geometric-optics framework. An analysis was made of the possiblity of obtaining highly directional radiation from a laser with a nonresonant feedback and parameters of this radiation were measured. It was found that the experimentally achieved divergence was close to the ″amplifier divergence″ and the energy losses were still relatively low.