Single longitudinal mode oscillation from a multi-interferometric cavity.

A method to generate stable single longitudinal mode (SLM) radiation from a multi-interferometric cavity configuration that can be considered as the combination of one Michelson cavity and two Fox-Smith cavities is presented. A numerical model of the interferometric cavity is investigated to optimize the laser for mode selection, and experimental verification has been carried out in a tunable TEA CO(2) laser. Pulse output energy of 300 mJ at 10.6 mum has been obtained at repetition rate of 20 Hz, corresponding to a repetition of SLM operation of 100%. This result shows that this interferometric cavity gives better performance in mode selection than other cavities based on multibeam interference.