Measurement and simulation of lasing transverse modes of a high power transverse-flow CO_2 laser

Based on the lasing transverse-mode measurement of a high power transverse-flow-CO2 laser by using a laser beam analyzer, in this study, a light-wave transmitted equation is established and a numerical solution is obtained. The simulated transverse modes agree with those obtained in the measurement. There is evidence to show that the two-overlapped higher-order transverse mode (double mode) observed in the experiment results from the decentration of the inverted population density, finally, arisen from a tandem-resonator conformation of the CO2 laser.