A large volume copper vapor +HCI--H/sub 2/ laser with a high average power

A copper vapor laser tube with a large volume (15.1 L) has been built for the study of extrapolation in power of the Cu-Ne-HCl-H/sub 2/ laser medium. A high-power (77 kW) all-solid-state high-voltage power supply has been also used for this purpose. Results show an improvement of the optical power after the HCl-H/sub 2/ mixture injection. An optical power of 312 W has been extracted from this laser head in oscillator configuration.