Proposed ultrastable CO2oscillator

Stabilized gas laser systems have failed to achieve the ideal stability, determined by fundamental noise, by as much as five orders of magnitude. Regardless of techniques used, long term stability has been limited by changes in discharge parameters affecting the center frequency of the spectral line used as the reference. The most serious causes of instability are the changes in gas density, composition, temperature, and electron density which are difficult to avoid in a gas discharge.