Patent ID: 8897333

Claim:
An optically pumped CO 2 laser comprising, at least, a laser diode excited Tm solid state laser tuned to either the 00°0→12°1 combination band transition or the 00°0→20° 1 and 00°0→12°1 combination band transition(s) of the CO 2 isotopologue(s) to be optically pumped for lasing purposes; a gas cell with a selected mix of CO 2 gas isotopologues, with selected admixture of inert gas components, at pressure, located internal to a resonant cavity, which with the pump beam and a CO 2 cavity axis combination method imposes a pump beam CO 2 gas interaction; the CO 2 lases in an atmospheric optical transmission window within a spectral region extending from approximately 9 μm to approximately 11.5 μm.