Abstract
A high-pressure, sealed cw CO2 laser with a maximum power of 8.7 kW (14.5% efficiency) has been developed. An unstable resonator was used fort hepower extraction from the discharge region with length in 2.9m and gap length in 40mm. The longterm stability test at a power of 7.6kW showed that the stability of the unstable resonator with a simple structure of invar spacer is useful for practical uses. The dependences of optical power on the gas pressure, internal diameter of coupling mirror, and location of optical axis are investigated in detail. The output annular beampattern was improved without a substantial decrease in optical power by the insertion of an intracavity aperture with a diameter slightly smaller than the discharge gap length.A stable resonator was also tried under the same gas condition to compare with the performance of the unstable resonator. A higher efficiency of 18% was obtained at anoptical power of 6 kW, which was limited by the optical damage of the partial reflector.
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