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A Feasibility Analysis Of A Directly Sun-Pumped Carbon Dioxide Laser In Space, Seiichi Morimoto

Dissertations and Theses

The possibility of using sunlight to pump a CW carbon dioxide laser has been analyzed. Such a laser could be of interest for such applications as space communication and power transmission. In order to optically pump CO₂ using sunlight, the intense vibrational-rotational absorption bands of CO₂ in the 4.3 micron spectral region would have to be utilized. The total pumping power from sunlight can be calculated from the known data of the solar spectral irradiance outside the atmosphere and the infrared absorption by carbon dioxide at 4.3 microns. The pumping power is proportional to the collector area of …