Electron-beam spreading and its effect on sustainer current and field distribution in CO2 lasers

Abstract

An electron‐beam‐initiated high‐pressure CO2 laser discharge is investigated. It is assumed that initially the discharge current flows along the vacuum electric field direction. The resulting distortion of the electric field is calculated by a linearization of the continuity equation. We have computed the solution for the special case of a finite electron beam and infinite planar electrodes. The predicted variation of the sustainer current and distortions of the applied voltage are compared with experimental results.