Fast axial flow CO/sub 2/ laser excited by silent discharge

A fast axial flow CO/sub 2/ laser excited by silent discharge has been developed. With a new electrode system applied to the laser, homogeneous discharge of power density of up to 80 W/cm/sup 3/ is obtained without applying any stabilization techniques on the discharge. An output laser power of 920 W in stable TEM/sub 00/ mode operation is attained with an efficiency of over 14%. Beam fluctuation common to fast axial flow lasers is suppressed by the combination of smooth gas flow and low CO/sub 2/ molar fraction.<
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