High Power Xenon Laser Action in High Current Pinched Discharges

Abstract

Recent experiments using high current capacitor discharges have produced high power laser action in multiply ionized xenon. Strongest oscillation was found on five simultaneous transitions in the green. These lines had a total peak power of 1.4 kW. In addition, streak camera pictures have shown that the onset of laser action begins and is sustained during the interval of time when the plasma is being compressed (``pinched'') by its self-electromagnetic forces.

Ion lasers-the early years

“…Unfortunately, it also ion-etched the windows and turned them into negative lenses in a couple of hundred hours, so that the optical cavity would become unstable [56]! Argon ion lasers have been excited by several different means, ranging from microwave-driven discharges [57], microwave cyclotron resonance [58], and -pinch discharges [59]- [61], among others. Even a theta-pinch fusion machine was used to make an argon ion laser.…”