High-energy CO2 lasers pumped by e-beam-controlled discharge with different pulse durations

This paper presents investigations of the carbon-dioxide lasers excited using two techniques: e-beam controlled discharge and e-beam ignited discharge. The working mixtures were CO2-N2-He, CO2-N2 and CO2-N2He- H2. We can change working mixture composition, its pressures, pumping power and the laser pulse duration from 50 ns to 10 microseconds. The operating time of a repetitive carbon-dioxide lasers excited by e-beam controlled discharge or e-beam ignited discharge in nonstop mode is determined by the lifetime of the foil separating the vacuum gap from the gas cell. The radiation energy of 3 kJ has been achieved in the active volume of 50 1 at pressure of 2 atm. When 12 1 active volume was used the energy deposited in to the CO2:N2:He equals 1:2:2 mixture was as high as 0.6 kJ/lXatm while the radiation energy was about order of magnitude 80 J/lXatm.