After a short introduction of the different types of uniform field electrodes, the main topic of the paper describes the usual preionization techniques with emphasis on the corona preionization. It is shown that the dielectric used in the corona preionizing board determines the amount of energy that can be deposited in the gas prior to arc formation and the laser output energy. We found Macor to be superior to all other dielectrics in this regard. A new surface discharge corona preionizer is then introduced. The preionizing board has a slit aperture in the middle of it, so that a transverse gas flow can be installed. When a transverse gas circulation was used, repetition rates up to 100 Hz could be achieved.

Date Published: 21 October 1986
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 0650, High Power Lasers and Their Industrial Applications, (21 October 1986); doi: 10.1117/12.938079

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0650:
High Power Lasers and Their Industrial Applications
Dieter Schuoecker, Editor(s)