A stabilized pulsed repetition-rate CO2 laser for a laser-plasma generator of multiply charged ions

• Published in: Instruments and experimental techniques (New York) 2012-05, Vol.55 (3), p.399-406
• Main Authors: Satov, Yu. A., Sharkov, B. Yu, Alekseev, N. N., Shumshurov, A. V., Balabaev, A. N., Savin, S. M., Belokurov, A. D., Khrisanov, I. A., Makarov, K. N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electrical Engineering; General Experimental Techniques; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Physical Chemistry; Physics; Physics and Astronomy
• ISSN: 0020-4412; 1608-3180
• DOI: 10.1134/S0020441212020108

The design of a laser oscillator with a stabilized frequency composition and a stabilized intensity of output radiation is described. The oscillator’s basic component is a TEA CO 2 module pumped by a self-maintained discharge and operating in a repetition-rate mode at a frequency of up to 3 Hz. A circuit for the formation of a self-maintained homogeneous discharge in the working volume of a CO 2 + N 2 + He mixture at atmospheric pressure is the basic component of the gas-discharge module. This circuit is based on the generation of a high-voltage pulse with a special profile, which provides high-reliability excitation of a discharge and pulse-to-pulse reproducibility of the discharge characteristics. The use of a hybrid circuit in the optical oscillator allows selection of a single longitudinal mode in the output radiation spectrum, thus eliminating undesirable interference phenomena, which lead to instability of the instantaneous values of the radiation intensity. During the development of the oscillator, the optimal operating parameters of the hybrid circuit were obtained, which ensure the high quality and reproducibility of the spatiotemporal and energy parameters of laser radiation.