Effects of Surface Waves on RF Discharge Pumped Lasers

摘要

Discharge lasers pumped by radiofrequency are limited in the amount of RF power that can be absorbed. Since the RF discharge avalanches to high electron density, normal waveguide modes are eventually cut off, and further propagation takes place as surface waves which couple poorly to material in the mode volume of a stable laser resonator. Solutions to this problem can be found by: (1) tailoring the microwave energy or possibly using a very attaching gas to control the avalanche; (2) optimizing the surface wave coupling and (3) optimizing the optical coupling to the excited region using an unstable resonator. (Author)