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CO2 Regenerative Ring Power Amplifiers

C. J. Buczek, R. J. Freiberg, and M. L. Skolnick


Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 42, 3133 (1971); doi: 10.1063/1.1660695
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1660695
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/42/8?ver=pdfcov
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JULY 1971

VOLUME 42, NUMBER 8

JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS

CO 2 Regenerative Ring Power Amplifiers


C,J, Buczek, R.J. Freiberg, and M.L. Skolnick
United Aircraft Research Laboratories, East Hartford, Connecticut 06108
(Received 29 July 1970; in final form 14 December 1970)
An unidirectional regenerative ring CO 2 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 CO 2
regenerative ring amplifiers.
I. INTRODUCTION

The frequency and modal stability necessary for applications of CO2 lasers can be achieved easily in
relatively short oscillators at power levels of a few
watts. 1 However, amplification is needed to generate
the higher powers required for many present day
laser systems. Conventional power amplifiers with
the necessary 10- to 30-dB gain tend to be bulky and
inefficient at these low-drive powers as a result
of the low-gain coefficients and saturation flux intensities associated with CO2 laser gain media. 2 In
order to bridge the gap in size and efficiency between amplifiers and oscillators, we have been investigating regenerative amplifier techniques. The
purpose of these positive feedback techniques is to
design high-gain CO2 power amplifiers characterized by the compactness and effiCiency associated
with oscillators, yet possessing phase characteristics which will not degrade the frequency stability
of master oscillator sources. Regenerative laser
amplification is not a new problem area. Previous
investigators have studied quantum or low-level regenerative amplifiers where gain saturation is not
an important phenomenon. 3,4 We, however, take
into account the very essential role of gain saturation which dominates the performance of CO2 regenerative power amplifiers. 5
II. GENERAL REGENERATIVE AMPLIFIER
CONSlDERATIONS

employing two partially reflecting mirrors. In


order for all the power to be extracted as amplified
transmission from port two and no power lost in reflection at port one, the saturated gain of the medium G and the mirror reflectivities Rl and Ra must
be adjusted to satisfy the relation G = Rl/Ra . In
practice this is often inconvenient to achieve.
The reflective ring amplifier shown in Fig. 1(c) is
a Single-port device employing only one transmitting mirror, thereby permitting all the power to be
extracted from one mirror. Similar to the transmission ring amplifier, no power can be directed
back to the master oscillator from the amplifier to
cause deleterious frequency changes. This inherent
isolation is a consequence of the ring geometry.
In general, regenerative amplifier operation is conSidered in two regions; (i) unconditionally stable and
(ii) conditionally stable. If the product of smallsignal power gain Go and output mirror power reflection R are less than one at all wavelengths, the
ring is unconditionally stable, 1. e., it does not 08(a) FABRYPEROT AMPLIFIER
MASTER

OSCI~LtTOR

I"

ISOLATOR

POWER
AMPLIFIER

0'
\

It,

PA
Go, G

(b) TRANSMISSION RING AMPLIFIER


P,

In Fig. 1 some of the general properties of regenerative amplifiers are considered. In Fig. 1(a) a
simple Fabry-Perot amplifier is depicted. In operation the amplifier cavity is tuned to resonance at
the oscillator frequency by adjusting its length. The
main disadvantage of the Fabry- Perot regenerative
amplifier is that it puts an element in line with the
oscillator that can reflect power back toward the
stable laser to cause deleterious frequency changes
which would compromise the frequency stability of
the system. Hence, the Fabry-Perot amplifier requires the use of nonreciprocal isolation immediately after the master oscillator.
Unlike the Fabry- Perot amplifier above, the transmission ring amplifier shown in Fig. l(b) does not
reflect power in the reverse direction back toward
the oscillator. However, this is a two-port device

(el REFLECTIVE RING AMPliFIER


P,

UNCONDITIONAllY STABLE
CONOITIONAll Y STABLE

GoR<1
Go R>l. GR<l

FIG. 1. General regenerative amplifier configurations:


(a) Fabry-Perot amplifier; (b) transmission regenerative
ring amplifier; (c) reflection regenerative ring amplifier.

3133
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3134

BUCZEK, FREIBERG, AND SKOLNICK

tion losses, this system can oscillate when tuned to


a molecular transition and saturation will decrease
the gain to the value rg =1. If we consider the case
rg < 1, the external power gain of the resonant ring
can be found to be 3

Po

FIG. 2. Pertinent power


definitions for a reflective regenerative ring
amplifier.

Pout _ (g - r)2 + 4rg sin ~e


Po - (1 - rg)2 + 4rg sinz ie
2

= Po + ~P
LIP = {G-l)P

POUT

cillate and power is extracted from the amplifier


only if the ring is driven by the master oscillator.
For CoR> 1 the ring can oscillate without drive.
However, under conditions of drive and proper tuning, the amplifier saturated gain C decreases such
that CR < 1. For this case power is extracted from
the amplifier at the deSired frequency when the amplifier is tuned and locked to the master oscillator.
Such operation is considered conditionally stable
and under conditions of low-drive powers, can be
des~ribed as classical injection locking. 6 It has been
demonstrated 7 that unidirectional operation can be
achieved above threshold by means of a small directional anisotropy which is provided by the master
oscillator output mirror. The ring amplifier consequently does not normally require an additional
nonreciprocal element between the source oscillator
and the amplifier. Hence, the inherent isolation of
the ring amplifier is preserved in the conditionally
stable mode, as well as in the unconditionally
stable mode of operation. We have achieved satisfactory CO2 amplifier performance in both modes
of operation by a suitable choice of operating parameters such as mirror reflectivity, oscillator
drive power, and gain of the amplifier medium.
III. THEORY

Consider a reflective regenerative ring with power


gain C and mirror reflectivity R. Figure 2 illustrates schematically the various power quantities
which will be referred to throughout this paper. Po
is the drive power from the master oscillator. Pl
is the circulating power inside the ring amplifier.
t:.P is the power extracted from the active medium
of the amplifier. Pout is the total output power from
the partially reflecting mirror.
The boundary value problem is solved at the partially reflecting mirror for unconditionally stable
operation, Expressions for Pout, P b and t:.p can be
obtained in terms of Po and the cavity tuning angle
e where e is related to the ring amplifier perimet~r p by e =21fp/"ll.
The ratio of the output power Pout to the oscillator
drive power Po can be written
pout_\r-geiO
Po - 1 - rge 1e

\2

(1)
,

where r=R z and g= CZ


If the small-signal gain exceeds the mirror reflec-

(2)

The power D.P extracted from the amplifier is given


by P rut - Po which can be written
t:.p
(g2 _ 1)(1- r2)
Po = (1- rg)2 + 4rgsin2 ~e .

(3)

The circulating power P 1 is defined as D.p/(C - 1)


and can be written
P1 _
1- r2
Po - (1-rg)2+4rgsin2ie

(4)

In order to fully describe the behavior of the regenerative ring amplifier, the saturation characteristics of the active medium must be implicitly included. At the pressures of interest in sealed-off
CO2 lasers, the gain medium can be conSidered to
be homogeneously broadened. For this case, the
laser intensity I being amplified through an incremental length is given by the usual expression
dI -I~
dx - l+I/Is'

(5)

where Is is the saturation intensity and a 0 is the


small-signal gain coefficient. For sealed-off and
conventional slow-flow lasers, the effective saturation intensity Is has recently been found to depend
on beam diameter as a result of the diffusion of excited CO2 specie into the beam. However, if the input beam diameter is comparable to the diameter of
the discharge tube, the saturation intensity is a
well-defined parameter. 8,9
The radial variation of the gain across the tube
diameter results from the combined effects of the
radial electron density profile and variation of the
gas temperature across the bore of the tube. The
electron density which contributes to the excitation
of the 00 1 upper CO2 laser level 10 exhibits a J o radial variation. 11 On the other hand the gas temperature which plays a strong role in establishing the
population inversion between the vibrational rotational levels 12 is lower at the tube walls than at the
center of the discharge. 13 This effect becomes more
pronounced in larger bore tubes. 14 Theoretical calculations indicate that a significant flattening of the
radial gain distribution results due to the gas-temperature contributions. 15 Experimentally, it has
been found that CO 2 oscillators, operating near optimum in the TEMoo mode, exhibit a gain profile
which is nearly constant across the bore diameter. 16,17
Consequently, in general, the active medium can
be modeled as homogeneous with a constant radial
gain profile and an effective saturation power P s
0

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CO 2 REGENERATIVE RING POWER AMPLIFIERS


p.

80 W

100
__ -

0.37; 1.2
0.29; 0.95

CONDITIONALLY STABLE

- - UNCONDITIONALLY STABLE

80
...

60

- -- --

__ - - - -

_-----

~-....
::I
o
Q.
R = 0 NON RESONANT AMPLIFIER

3135

15

10

FIG. 3. Theoretical
comparison of ring
amplifiers with nonresonant amplifier. Power
output vs power input
for various mirror
reflectivities. Dashed
and solid curves
represent conditionally
and unconditionally
stable operation,
respectively.

20

PO' W
which, as will be discussed later, can be obtained
from the experimental data. The conditions in the
active medium can quite accurately be described in
terms of the laser power and the saturation power
as
dP _p
01 0
dx- l+P/P s

(6)

This formulation follows from Eq. (5) and is exact


for a uniform illumination.
Equation (6) can be solved in terms of input power
to the amplifier, gain G, and small-signal gain
Go"'e"'oL to yield

IV. EXPERIMENT

(7)
The power extracted from the amplifier is given by
6.P= (G - 1)P1 which from the above Eq. (7) can be
written
6.P", ~ In(Go/G).

reflective ring amplifier is far superior to the


single-pass amplifier employing the same length of
active medium from the standpoint of compactness,
effiCiency, and drive power requirements. For example, for l-W power input, the single-pass amplifier yields only 3 W of output power; whereas with
the same length of active medium, 30 W is available
from an unconditionally stable ring employing a 29%
reflecting mirror. If the mirror reflectivity is increased to 49%, forcing the ring amplifier to operate
conditionally stable, 50 W of power can be extracted
USing only 1 W of drive power.

(8)

The maximum power extraction occurs when the


saturated gain G equals one.
In order to illustrate the applicability of regenerative techniques with CO2 lasers, consider a reflective ring which employs two 20-mm-i. d. discharge
tubes whose total discharge length is l'" 1. 5 m.
Choose the small-signal gain coefficient 010 to be
0.8% cm-l, and the saturation power ~ to be 80 W.
These are representative experimental values for
the discharge tubes of this size. 16,19 For these
values, the maximum extractable power from the
amplifier would be aolp" or 96 W. The power output
has been calculated by use of the above relation for
these amplifier parameters with mirror reflectivity
and drive power as parameters. The results for the
amplifier tuned on frequency are shown in Fig. 3.
The dashed lines represent conditionally stable configurations, whereas the solid lines correspond to
unconditionally stable operation of the ring. The
lower straight line represents a conventional singlepass nonresonant amplifier. It can be seen that the

A schematic of the experimental apparatus is shown


in Fig. 4. The single-frequency master oscillator
passes through the mode-matching optics and illuminates the regenerative ring amplifier. The power
output is detected by a CRL power meter and a
liquid Nz cooled Au: Ge detector which is used as the
optical senSing element in the regenerative ring
lOCking electronics. The piezoelectrically driven
mirror is used to tune the ring amplifier frequency
to that of the master oscillator.

Figure 5 is a scope trace of the ring amplifier output as a function of frequency. The amplifier is
operating in the conditionally stable mode. A 2000V sawtooth has been applied to the PZT to sweep
the frequency of the amplifier linearly with respect
to the frequency of the master oscillator. As one
moves from left to right, self-oscillation of the ring
is evident. As the frequency of the ring approaches
that of the stable laser, beating of the two signals
occurs in the detector. When both the ring amplifier
and the master oscillator are at the same frequency,
power is extracted from the amplifier medium at the
frequency of the master oscillator.
The performance of the regenerative ring has been
experimentally investigated over a range of parameters including power input, gain, and reflectivity
using a variety of sealed-off and flowing gas tubes.

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3136

B UC Z EK, FR EIBERG, AND SKOLNICK


UNCONDITIONALl Y STABLE
CONDITONALL Y STABLE

GoR<l
GoR>l.GR<1

POWER
METER

FIG. 4. Schematic of reflective


regenerative ring amplifier and
associative circuitry.
DISCHARGE TUBE

Some of the most interesting results were achieved


at low values of input (or drive) power in the 0-10mW range with small sealed-off amplifier tubes
having small-signal gains ranging from 1. 5 to 1. 9.
Operation in this power range corresponds to the
extreme left edge of Fig. 3 where the power out
rises very steeply with input power, corresponding
to high gains. In Fig. 6 the experimental 10.6-/l
power output vs oscillator power input curves are
shown for various small-signal gains. The mirror
reflectivity is 58%. The shaded region represents
unconditionally stable operation. At low-drive
powers very high gains can be achieved in both
modes of amplifier operation. At the 10-mW drive
level, the gain reaches 430 in the unconditionally
stable region for Go = 1. 7 and increases to as high
as 930 in the conditionally stable region for Go = 1. 9.
To illustrate the role that saturation plays in the
performance of such a device, we conSider the
middle curve, where operation occurs at a smallSignal gain just below the oscillation threshold.
Changing the drive power from 5 to 10 mW, a doubling of the drive, results in a power output increase
from 2.70 to 4.05 W, an increase of only 50%. Even
at these low-drive powers, the effects of saturation

PZT

are evident. As the drive power increases, the maximum available power from the ring amplifier increases but at a decreasing rate under both unconditionally stable and conditionally stable operation.
Figure 7 is a plot of AP, the power extracted from
the active medium vs InGo, the natural log of the
small-signal gain. The data represented by the circular points was taken by maintaining a constant
drive power of 186 mW while varying the smallsignal gain by adjusting the discharge current. The
theoretical curve is represented by the solid line.
~ 10
ffi
~

....
A....

oA-

MIRROR REFLECTIVITY 58%


PLANE POLARIZED
P(20)

ao::

...

!!!
:::i
A-

e(

C>
~

ao::
w

....e(~
ao::
w

C>
w
ao::

FIG. 5. Scope trace of the power out vs frequency of a


driven conditionally stable regenerative ring amplifier.
Input: P(22) 10 mW; vertical: 1. 2 W/div; horizontal:
12 MHz/div.

FIG. 6. Experimental power output characteristics of the


regenerative ring amplifier for various values of smallsignal gain. These curves correspond to the powers extracted in excess of self-oscillating or undriven power
levels. Consequently all three curves originate from zero.

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CO 2 REGENERATIVE RING POWER AMPLIFIERS

master oscillator drive power. The influence of


gain saturation upon the ring amplifier was discussed. Experimental regenerative ring amplifier
data were presented for two distinct modes of operation: the region of unconditional stability where
the gain is sufficiently low that self-oscillation cannot occur and the region of conditional stability
where in the absence of drive power and insufficient
tuning self-oscillation is possible.

P(20)
PO= 186 mW
R
52.4%
PSA1 = 27.SW

o
-

EXPERIMENT
THEORY

18
16

Regenerative amplifier techniques are presently


being investigated for applications at powers in the
50 to 100 W range with systems requiring a high
degree of frequency stability. Under investigation
are the effects of gain saturation upon the amplifier
bandwidth and the importance of line competition
effects in determining the drive power requirements
of the ring amplifier.

14

a.

12

<l

...
~

10

.......o

oa.

REGION OF
UNCONDITIONAL
STABILITY

REGION OF
CONDITIONAL
STABILITY

<

....

...
X

3137

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge the many helpful


discussions with Dr. A. J. DeMaria and the experimental assistance of A. Tolman. This work was
supported by the Air Force Avionics Laboratory,
Air Force Systems Command, Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base, Ohio,

I
I
I
I

I~GO=I/R
1

I
I

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

FIG. 7. Experimental plot of the extracted power from


the active medium of the ring amplifier as a function of the
small-signal gain.

The regions of unconditional and conditional stability


are divided by the vertical dashed line Go = l/Ro The
saturation power of 27.5 W was obtained from the
asymptotic slope of the curve in the limit of high
small-signal gain. Excellent agreement between
theory and experiment is found in the region of unconditional stability. In this experiment the smallsignal gain, which decreases with increasing gas
temperature, was reduced by increasing the discharge current. Accompanying this increase in gas
temperature is an increase in the saturation power. 20
The slight departure from theory as the smallsignal gain approaches unity can be attributed to this
increase in saturation power.
V. SUMMARY

The concept and operational characteristics of CO 2


regenerative ring amplifiers have been discussed.
Expressions for the circulating power, the power
extracted from the active medium, and the output
power of a reflective ring amplifier were derived for
a homogeneously broadened CO 2 laser medium, in
terms of mirror reflectivity, effective gain, and

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