Abstract
Although operation of CO2 lasers at (or above) atmospheric pressure is common-place in the pulsed discharge mode, the maximum pressures which have been demonstrated in the CW mode have been rather more modest. Thus, conventional resonator CO2 lasers are limited to pressures of a few tens torr, while resonators based on waveguiding principles have permitted significant laser output from devices operating to a several hundred torr. The basic problems in achieving higher pressure operation are twofold, first, to maintain discharge stability, and secondly, to preserve the gain medium excitation efficiency in the face of the changing gas density conditions.
© 1996 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
F. Villarreal, A. A. Cameron, A. D. Colley, P. P. Vitruk, H. J. Baker, D. R. Hall, and C. J. Shackleton
CMJ4 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO:S&I) 1995
A K Nath, P Choudhary, and A K Biswas
CThI37 The European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO/Europe) 1996
F Villarreal, A A Cameron, A D Colley, H J Baker, and D R Hall
CThI42 The European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO/Europe) 1996