Carbon dioxide laser with an e-beam-initiated discharge produced in the working gas mixture at a pressure up to 5 atm

Abstract

A high-pressure CO2 laser with a discharge initiated by an electron beam of sub-nanosecond duration in the laser gas mixture at a pressure up to 5 atm is fabricated. For the 20-ns pulses the energy from the active volume ∼ 4 cm3 amounted to 40 mJ. The laser operation at a pulse repetition rate up to 5 Hz is demonstrated. In the gas mixture CO2:N2:He = 1:1:6 at a pressure 5 atm, the specific energy deposition of ∼ 0.07 J cm-3 atm-1 is obtained in the process of a non-self-sustained discharge with ionisation amplification.