Experimental results on the operation of a Laflamme doublehyphen;discharge laser structure up to pressures of several atmospheres are presented. With an electrical energy input of 30 Jsol;liter atm, a multimode pulse output of 1 J is obtained at 6 atm from a 1sol;3hyphen;liter active volume, containing 7.5percnt; CO2, 7.5percnt; N2, and 85percnt; He. It is found that a high level of energy deposition into the CO2gas can be achieved, provided that the plasmaEsol;pis optimized in both the main discharge and the preionizing discharge. On the basis of the understanding gained during this investigation, a ruggedized Laflamme structure capable of withstanding prolonged arcing conditions has been developed.
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