New bar cathode system for cw CO2transversely excited lasers

摘要

A new bar cathode system that is simple and easy to construct was developed. Its characteristics were investigated and compared with a conventional multipin cathode system. The result demonstrated that transversely excited CO2lasers employing both cathode systems have similar characteristics and also gave about 10 kW output, although oscillation mode patterns of both systems differed a little from each other. The studies showed that we should be able to get a uniform gain distribution and a uniform oscillation mode with a cathode system consisting of variously shaped bars.