Tunable kilowatt (12)CH(3)F-laser emission from an unstable resonator

Using a half-meter unstable resonator configuration, over 1 kW of 0.496-mm radiation has been observed from CO(2)-pumped (12)CH(3)F. At a pressure of 2 Torr, a Ramanlike emission, tunable over 400 MHz, was identified. The emission spectrum contained resonator longitudinal modes of linewidth less than 70 MHz and separated by 275 MHz. The full-angle beam divergence was 18 mrad.