Focusing Experiments with a High Power N2/co2 Laser

摘要

A high-power uniform electric discharge is used to produce laser action in a mixture of N2, CO2 and He. Stable and unstable resonator cavities have been used on this medium to extract large amounts of power in both single mode and multimode laser operation. At a given electrical power input and cavity coupling, no significant difference in power extraction from the cavity was measured between the stable and unstable resonators. When focused, the power output from the unstable resonator produced focal point spot sizes and energy densities consistent with near-diffraction limited single-mode operation. (Author)