<title>Ridge-waveguide type microwave-pumped system versatile to both CO<formula><inf><roman>2</roman></inf></formula> and CO lasers</title>

Abstract

A prototype of ridge-waveguide type microwave pumped systems versatile to both CO2 and CO lasers has been adopted to a compact fast-axial flow (FAF) scheme. Dependence of the output power P0 on total gas pressure p, microwave power and gas-flow velocity v is investigated for both the lasers, together with the effect of v on gas temperature T. The maximum output powers of 42 W and 15 W are, respectively, obtained with the discharge lengths of 11 cm and 37 cm for CO2 and CO lasers, corresponding to the scaling-powers of 380 W and 38 W to a unit discharge length. Since the ridge-waveguide is, thus far, not optimized yet, there is still some room in CO laser to be modified for effective pumping, involving the direction of gas-flow.