Nitrogen, atomic fluorine and CO 2 lasers excited by a pulsed inductive discharge

Abstract

The experimental investigations results of spectral, energy and temporal parameters of the first inductive N 2 , FI and CO 2 gas lasers are reported. The excitation system for formation of the achievement the pulsed cylindrical inductive discharge in gas mixtures is described. For the first time the nitrogen inductive laser (337.1 nm) with pulse power of 350 kW was created. The generation energy of 4.6 mJ with the pulse duration (FWHM) of 12±1 ns was achieved. The total efficiency of nitrogen inductive laser was 0.05 %. The laser beam has a ring form with an outer diameter of 43 mm, thickness of 1.5-2.0 mm and the divergence of 0.3 mrad. For FI inductive laser the lasing was observed on 8 lines (623-755 nm). The maximal output energy of 2.6 mJ was achieved in He:F 2 -100:1 gas mixture. The pulse duration was 80±1 ns (FWHM) that correspond to pulse power of 32 kW. The total efficiency of the FI inductive laser was 0.01 %. The ring laser beam has an outer diameter of 43 mm, thickness of 3.0 mm and the divergence of 0.4 mrad. For CO 2 (10.6 um) inductive laser the maximal output energy of 150 mJ was achieved in gas mixture He:N 2 :CO 2 -8:1:1. The pulse duration (FWHM) was 170 us that corresponds to a pulse power of 0.9 kW. The laser beam has a ring form with dimension of an outer diameter of 33 mm with the thickness about 6.0 -6.5 mm and the divergence of 4.0 mrad.

Pulsed inductive CO2 laser with radio-frequency excitation and influence of the H2 content on the efficiency and lasing temporal characteristics

“…Below, we will briefly present only the main highlights. As the results of the performed studies [14,15,[18][19][20][21], an obvious conclusion follows about the necessity to increase the efficiency of a pulsed inductive CO 2 laser through further optimization of the excitation parameters . Thus, subsequently, in [22], the possibility of using a pulsed ignition mode and maintaining the inductive discharge by a modulated RF current (144 MHz using the 'homemade' power supply without a matching device) were confirmed-pulsed RF excitation.…”

“…In this paper, our task was to study the pulsed inductive CO 2 laser, so we do not dwell on the description of the achieved results of the 'classic' and the waveguide and slab CO 2 lasers with RF excitation. This publication is an extension of the cycle of studies of the inductive CO 2 laser, which began in the early 2000s (the first results of lasing on vibrational-rotational transitions of CO 2 molecules were published in [14], a few years after the development of a pulsed inductive laser [15]). A more detailed review of the previously obtained results on the topic of a pulsed inductive CO 2 laser was presented in [16,17].…”