Compact sealed photopreionized TEA CO2 laser without heterogeneous catalysis or gas recycling

Abstract

A compact photopreionized CO2 TEA laser is reported which operates on a single sealed gas mixture for ≳106 pulses without the necessity for heterogeneous catalysis, gas recirculation, or careful control of the gas mixture. Discharge arcing is prevented by (i) suppression of the CO2 dissociation and O2 formation with the addition of CO to the basic CO2-N2-He mixture and (ii) limitation of the attachment of the preionization electrons by the use of a short (∼60 ns) delay between the preionizing and main discharges with integral delay electronics.

Efficient small-scale TEA CO 2 laser for material surface modification

“…The laser operating with conventional ternary C02/N2IHe and nonconventional C02/Y, Y N2/H2; N2/C2H2; H2IHe gas mixtures typically show high energy output, Table 1 . The CO2IN2IHe gas mixture gives slightly higher output in comparison to the nonconventional C02/N2/112 mixture.…”

“…1, was made of a block of perspex. A pair of solid aluminium uniform-field electrodes profiled according to Chang1 and a UV preionizer are placed into the chamber. The main electrodes define the discharge volume of…”