High Voltage Solid-State Pulser For High Repetition-Rate Gas Lasers.

An all solid-state pulser for the excitation of a high repetition-rate TEA CO2 laser is described. The pulser uses a fast switching thyristor, a fast pulse transformer and a two-stage magnetic pulse compression network. The pulser interfaced with the laser has been succesfully operated at 200 Hz with a pulse energy of 7 J, peak voltage of 20 kV, pulse duration 0.6 μs, and an overall efficiency of 70%.