Synchronization of ultraviolet-preionization in a Marx-driven TEA CO 2 laser

Abstract

In a TEA CO 2 laser a two-stage spark gap was used to control the predischarge, which produced the ultraviolet-preionization, and to generate a trigger pulse for the Marx bank, which excited the main discharge. The time-sequence of the predischarge and the trigger pulse could be reversed so that the main discharge could commence before the preionization process. This set-up has enabled temporal synchronization on the laser performance, or basically the time delay between the pre- and the main discharges, to be investigated from about − 150 ns to 600 ns.