Natural population inversion for the CO2 vibrational states in Earth's atmosphere

✍ Scribed by G.M. Shved; V.P. Ogibalov

• Book ID: 104407012
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 142 KB
• Volume: 62
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1364-6826
• DOI: 10.1016/s1364-6826(00)00068-7

✦ Synopsis

An estimation of population inversion for the (0 0 0 1) and (1 0 0 0) states of the CO2 molecule in the Earth's atmosphere is presented. The evaluation shows the inversion to occur near a height of 95 -100 km in daytime. The principal source of the (0 0 0 1) state pumping is the absorption of solar radiation in the 4:3 m CO2 band. The collisional transfer of energy from O( 1 D) atoms to the (0 0 0 1) state ampliÿes the inversion signiÿcantly. The maximum value of ([CO2(0 0 0 1)] -[CO2(1 0 0 0)])=[CO2(1 0 0 0)] cannot be less than ≈ 0:2. However, the maximum order of the total directional gain for laser emission in the 10:4 m CO2 band along the tangent path was found to be small, it varies from 0:3 × 1 0 -5 to 1 0 -5 depending mainly on the extent to which the O( 1 D) source contributes to (0 0 0 1) state pumping. The utilization of the natural inversion could be possible by forming a lasing cavity with orbiting mirrors should the engineering problem associated with the slow accumulation of electromagnetic wave energy in the cavity be solved.