Sealed-off CO2 laser with In–Au alloy sealing

Abstract

The In–Au alloy sealing was found to satisfy all the requirements imposed on the sealed-off CO2 lasers. The sealing between different materials such as quartz, SUS 303, Si, and ZnSe was shown to withstand the thermal shock test, and gave the He leak rate lower than 1×10−9 atm cc/s both before and after the tests. It was also proved that the transmittance characteristics of dielectric coated output couplers did not change after the sealing. The sealed-off CO2 lasers with La1−xSrxCoO3 perovskite oxide cathodes sealed with this technique produced the operational life of 3000 h at the laser power level of 50 W/m.