A small photoswitched TEA CO2 laser has been developed. This small aperture, low repetition rate laser can produce 69 mJ optical pulses from a discharge volume of 12.5cm3, with an energy efficiency of 11.1%. This energy efficiency is the highest so far reported with such lasers. Corona UV sources driven by a simple inexpensive solid state exciter are used to trigger the discharge. Also demonstrated is the wider input energy loading and enhanced discharge stability provided by overvolting the laser head.

A corona preionized pulser-sustainer, transverse, electric, atmospheric CO2 laser has been developed. This small-aperture laser can produce 180 mJ optical pulses of 5 mu s duration from a discharge volume of 15.6 cm2 with an efficiency of 12.4%. The laser was driven by a simple inexpensive solid-state exciter.

A corona preionized compact transverse, electric, atmospheric CO2 laser providing an average optical output of 18 W from a 4.6-cm3 discharge volume is reported. The laser was driven at pulse rates up to 1 kHz by an all solid-state exciter circuit which has produced>109 pulses.

A corona pre-ionized, solid-state switched transverse, electric, atmospheric CO2 laser has been developed. This small aperture, low repetition rate laser can produce 114 mJ optical pulses from a discharge volume of 15.6 cm3, with an energy efficiency of 12.7%. The device is driven by a simple inexpensive solid-state exciter, which uses a series stack of thyristors, to provide an output efficiency similar to that produced by a conventional thyratron circuit.

A highly efficient multi-joule output TE-CO2 laser has been developed using a spiker-sustainer excitation method. With helium-free laser gas mixtures 5-J laser pulses have been produced at a pressure of 400 mbar with an energy output efficiency of 22.6%. The addition of small amounts of hydrogen to the gas mix has been found to enhance laser performance.