All Solid State Switched Pulser For Multikilowatt, Multi-kilohertz Excimer And CO/sub 2/ Tea Lasers

An all solid state switched pulser, suitable for the excitation of high repetition rate, high average power industrial excimer- and CO/sub 2/ TEA lasers, has been developed. For primary pulse conversion, the pulser makes use of a modular, microprocessor controlled, thyristor switched, pulse power supply unit, which produces 25 J output pulses with a peak voltage of 45 kV and a duration of 40 /spl mu/s. A four stage series magnetic pulse compressor is employed to compress these pulses in time and to deliver the required output of 20 J at 120 ns rise time to the laser. The compressor utilizes oil-cooled, toroidal amorphous inductors and ceramic storage capacitors in a coaxial arrangement and has an overall electrical efficiency of 82%. A commercial prototype of the pulser is presently undergoing tests on an industrial CO/sub 2/ TEA laser system. The laser operates at a repetition rate of 2 kHz and delivers an average output power above 2.5kW. The paper briefly presents the underlying analytical theory relating to resonant energy transfer and pulse compression, introducing new concepts that relate to the combined technical and economic optimization of multistage compressors. The design and construction of an optimized compressor is discussed and an operational evaluation is carried out. Lastly, the experimental results are contrasted with the design values.