Steady-State Output Power of a Laser as a Function of the Single-Pass Gain

Abstract

An expression for the output power of a laser in terms of the measured single‐pass gain is discussed for two cases: homogeneously and inhomogeneously broadened spectral lines. The results are applied to the 6328‐Å laser line in the helium‐neon mixture, but only an order‐of‐magnitude calculation is possible because of the lack of data. Finally, several of the assumptions made during the derivation are discussed.