High Power Gas Laser in the Visible

摘要

The study and development of prototype mercury and noble gas ion lasers is discussed. The pulsed mercury-helium system has been found to have the highest gain, largest aperture, and narrowest linewidth of any presently known ion laser system. The prototype hollow cathode mercury isotope system, in particular, is a good prospect for a standard of wavelength. To date, however, it has been impossible to achieve CW operation from the mercury ion, probably due to metastable trapping of the lower laser states. The noble gas ions, such as argon, have demonstrated the capability of producing watts of CW power in the blue-green region of the spectrum. The reliable production of such outputs, has yet to be achieved, due mainly to the powerful sputtering effects of the very hot plasmas required. The prototype argon laser described has a target specification of 0.1 watt in one spectral line with a lifetime of at least 100 hours. Lasers of this type have been used to study the effects of various physical parameters on the output beam. These include magnetic fields, gas pressures, mixtures, base geometrics, and current densities. (Author)