Our original pumping system for the gas-discharge TE carbon- dioxide laser was tested in the 5 kW laser. It includes crossed electrodes (20 anodes, 5 cathodes), thyristor invertor (2.5 kHz), system of unballast connections of sections to the invertor. The preionizer placed upstream realizes the 100 kHz discharge through dielectric electrodes. On the basis of the principle of minimum of energy dissipation high efficiency of current distribution over crossings (20 by 5) with a small number of sections (20 plus 5) is shown. It provides a stable dc discharge at average power input to 4W/cm³ due to influence of upstream discharges upon the downstream ones. The active medium of the laser was studied by method of IR luminescence at the wavelength 2 - 8 micrometer in 'switched on' and 'switched off' resonator. The luminescence intensity in the band 4.3 micrometer gives the particular information about the active medium. The 2D model of a discharge segmented along the gas flow was constructed to describe the distribution of electrical, gas-dynamic and kinetic characteristics. It was shown that in the most volume of chamber the discharge burns in the recombining plasma at reduced E/n, thus favoring high excitation efficiency.

Date Published: 4 April 1997
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 2987, Gas and Chemical Lasers and Applications II, (4 April 1997); doi: 10.1117/12.271567

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2987:
Gas and Chemical Lasers and Applications II
Robert C. Sze; Ernest A. Dorko, Editor(s)