Performance of CuII lasers with cylindrical hollow cathodes

A CuII laser has been constructed with cylindrical anode and cathode segments connected by isolating and vacuum tight space holders. The discharge operates only inside the bore of the electrodes and no additional vacuum vessel is required. The laser output power at 780 nm was measured in dependence of the discharge current for different He-Ar mixtures and different cathode bore diameters and cathode lengths.