Tunable pulse-width, electro-optically cavity-dumped, rf-excited Z-fold waveguide CO2 laser

Abstract

In this paper, an electro-optically cavity-dumped, rf-excited, Z-folded waveguide CO2 laser is presented. Theoretical studies on the laser output wave form and method to control laser pulse width and output power are made. In the experiment, a pulse width of a cavity-dumped laser can be changed from 12 to 32 ns. However, the corresponding peak powers reduce from 7000to2800W at a pulse repetition rate of 10kHz. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical analyses.

Longitudinally Excited CO2 Laser

“…In a CO2 laser, the use of a mechanical chopper, rotating mirror (Battou et al, 2008), electrooptical (CdTe) (Tian et al, 2005) or acoustooptical modulators (Xie et al, 2010), or saturable absorber (SF6) (Soukieh et al, 1999) has been reported.…”

Short-pulse CO2 laser with longitudinal tandem discharge tube

“…CO 2 lasers are also characterized by the flexibility of pulse oscillation and are capable of pulse widths from nanoseconds to milliseconds, as well as CW oscillation. [1][2][3][4][5] Although there are a number of excitation methods for CO 2 lasers, a longitudinal pulse discharge has been shown to produce a tail-free short laser pulse with a pulse width of about 100 ns, similar to that of a Q-switched CO 2 laser, 6 a short laser pulse with a spike pulse width of about 100 ns, and a pulse tail length of several tens of microseconds, 6-8 or a long laser pulse with a pulse width of 10 μs to 5 ms. 6,9 In the longitudinal excitation scheme, the excitation discharge is in the direction of the laser axis, and the electrodes are well separated and have a small discharge crosssection. [6][7][8][9] The long discharge length (several tens of centimeters) provides a high breakdown voltage (>20 kV) at a low gas pressure (<10 kPa).…”

Longitudinally excited CO2laser with tail-free short pulse

“…The excitation schemes used for CO 2 lasers are classified into the longitudinal excitation scheme 1,2 and the transverse excitation scheme 3,4 , according to the structure of the laser tube. Pulse discharge [1][2][3][4] , DC discharge 5 , and RF discharge 6,7 are used for the excitation discharge of CO 2 lasers.…”