Application of a distributed gold catalyst to increase the output power and efficiency of a sealed-off CO2 laser excited by a transverse rf discharge in tubes

摘要

It is shown experimentally that a transverse rf discharge in tubes has a higher plasmachemical activity than a de discharge, which deteriorates the parameters of rf discharge-excited CO2 lasers. The output power and efficiency of a sealed-off CO2 laser were substantially increased by using a distributed gold catalyst facilitating CO2 regeneration. The output power of 0.77 W cm(-1) per unit length of an active medium with efficiency of 18.5% was obtained in an experimental CO2 laser with tubes with a distributed gold catalyst excited by a 27.1 MHz rf discharge.