Photoinitiated transversely sustained CO2 laser

Abstract

A uniform self‐sustaining discharge is initiated in a high‐pressure CO₂ : N₂ : He mixture by photons from a series of intense arcs, and subsequently sustained for times on the order of 400 μsec by an externally applied cathode‐anode voltage. For total pressures in the range of 100 Torr, lasing action is observed to occur in single 50–400‐μsec‐wide pulses, depending upon the discharge parameters. Energy supplied by the sustainer is converted to laser output with an efficiency of approximately 7%.