The investigation of magnetically confined discharge CO lasers

A model of magnetically confined discharge carbon monoxide (CO) lasers is presented. Electron energy distribution functions, the influence of magnetic fields on electron impact excitation, the vibration-to-translation (V–T) and the vibration-to-vibration (V–V) excitation rates of CO molecules are discussed. The vibrational-state populations of CO molecules and small-signal gain with magnetic fields are calculated and studied empirically. With the addition of a magnetic field, there is a hole in the distribution of the vibrational-state populations of CO molecules, and the small-signal gain is higher in this region.