Determination of the electrical characteristics of the discharges in a pulsed gas laser through its current waveforms

A method of finding the time dependent resistance and inductance of the discharges in the switch system and laser chamber in pulsed gas lasers is described in the present work. According to this method the current waveform is digitized and the first and second derivative is calculated through a computer. For a certain time instant, substituting the value of the current and its first and second derivative into the integrodifferential equations describing the performance of the circuit loops, we form relationships which connect the values of the resistance and inductance for this particular time instant. Combining relationships originated from very closed adjacent time instants, the values of the resistance and inductance can be found. Scanning the entire time region of the discharge, the time history of the resistances and inductances of the discharges are revealed. Their behavior shows for the resistances an abrupt drop while for the inductances a sharp peak, both during the formation phase. After that the above characteristic quantities fluctuate slowly around constant values.