Performance of a surface corona preionized mini-TEA CO₂ laser

Abstract

A surface-wire corona preionized miniature transversely excited atmospheric CO 2 laser was evaluated. The corona pre-ionizer was constructed from alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) ceramic tube and a fine wire stretched along the surface of the tube. When this extremely efficient yet comparatively inexpensive pre-ionizer was applied to the laser, output pulse energy of 230 mJ with a pulse duration of ∼70 ns (FWHM) was obtained from a small discharge volume of 50 cm 3 . This energy output was found to be higher than that obtained from a spark preionized laser with the same discharge volume. Moreover, the discharge stability was also found to improve drastically. These results can therefore be used as a reference when developing full-scale corona pre-ionized laser systems.