CO2 Regenerative Ring Power Amplifiers

Abstract

An unidirectional regenerative ring CO₂ power amplifier is described. Both below threshold (unconditionally stable) and above threshold (conditionally stable) operation are discussed. Analytic expressions for a homogeneously broadened medium are presented for the power extracted from the active medium, the circulating power, and the total output power of the ring amplifier. Experimental results are presented in support of the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the role of gain saturation in the performance of CO₂ regenerative ring amplifiers.