Efficient Oscillator for 192-μm Optically Pumped Pulsed Laser

Abstract

An efficient cavity oscillator for a 192-μm pulsed laser radiation is presented when pumped with a transverse excited atmospheric (TEA) CO2 laser. A maximum power of 7.1 kW is achieved from a 100-cm cavity. The oscillation behavior of the 192-μm laser has resulted in an increase in energy of 45 % as compared with a mirror-less process and an energy conversion efficiency of 0.1 %. Oscillation characteristics are discussed including the pulse width and time delay. The laser spot size is measured according to the knife-edge scan technique while the output beam quality M2 factor is about 1.33.