We experimentally investigate generation of nitrogen molecular ion () lasers with two femtosecond laser pulses at different wavelengths. The first pulse serves as the pump which ionizes the nitrogen molecules and excites the molecular ions to excited electronic states. The second pulse serves as the probe which leads to stimulated emission from the excited molecular ions. We observe that changing the angle between the polarization directions of the two pulses gives rise to elliptically polarized laser fields, which is interpreted as a result of strong birefringence of the gain medium near the wavelengths of the laser.
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