Effective mode volume and estimation of He-Ne laser radiation power

Abstract

The relationship between the generated power and the mode volume of the fundamental mode of a plane-sphere resonator is considered in the article using the example of a He-Ne laser. A method is proposed for estimating the radiation power of a gas-discharge laser with an arbitrary cross-sectional shape of an active element, which is based on the volume of the generating mode. It is shown that the results of calculations of the generated power, carried out on the basis of the effective mode volume, which takes into account the transverse distribution of the population inversion of the active medium, are in better agreement with the experimental data and the results of estimates using other methods.

Keywords

• mode volume
• effective mode volume
• population inversion
• he-ne laser power