Abstract

The optical performance of a cw PIE CO₂ laser has been substantially improved through the adoption of a burst-mode gain switching technique. The approach has provided a doubling of the average beam power extractable from the device. With appropriate optimization, the process could possibly permit the attainment of pulsed energy extraction in the kilohertz range, and with average optical powers within the several tens of kilowatt category.

© 1989 Optical Society of America

Optical performance of a burst-mode multikilowatt CO₂ laser

S. W. C. Scott, J. D. Strohschein, H. J. J. Seguin, C. E. Capjack, and H. W. Reshef
Appl. Opt. 35(24) 4740-4748 (1996)

Electrical characteristics of a MAGPIE coaxial laser discharge system

V. A. Seguin, H. J. J. Seguin, and C. E. Capjack
Appl. Opt. 24(9) 1265-1269 (1985)

Multiple pass unstable resonator for an annular gain CO₂ laser

V. A. Seguin, H. J. J. Seguin, C. E. Capjack, S. K. Nikumb, and H. Reshef
Appl. Opt. 25(21) 3825-3829 (1986)

Crossed-tube fluid-ballasted electrode pair for EDL applications

H. J. J. Seguin, K. H. Nam, J. Dow, and V. Seguin
Appl. Opt. 20(13) 2233-2238 (1981)

High-energy pulse-burst laser system for megahertz-rate flow visualization

Pingfan P. Wu and Richard B. Miles
Opt. Lett. 25(22) 1639-1641 (2000)