Stimulated emission at 15.88 and 15.95 &mgr;m has been obtained in14NH3utilizing two‐photon excitation. Total output energies on the order of 1 mJ have been observed in configurations which can be readily scaled to higher values. A discussion of the parameters available to control the operation of this system is given along with experimental data on laser output energy, divergence, the role of the optical Stark effect, pressure dependence, and spectral control with absorbing gases. These mechanisms can be generally applied for efficient down‐conversion throughout the infrared.