Measurement of the absorption coefficient of CO2 laser windows with hysteresis in the power-tuning curve of a single-mode continuous-wave CO2 laser

摘要

We report a new method for the measurement of the absorption coefficient of CO2 laser windows. The method exploits the hysteresis in the power-tuning curve of a single-mode continuous-wave CO2 laser and allows measurements of absorption coefficients of the order of similar to 10(-3) cm(-1) in CO2 laser windows a few millimeters thick. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.