Investigation of industrial CO2 laser beam characteristics with intracavity modulator

An investigation of energy, temporal and spatial characteristics of industrial carbon-dioxide laser beam with 1.5 kW average power has been undertaken under modulation of the resonator output mirror transmittance. The use of a mirror, based on Fabry-Perot interferometer for intracavity modulation permitted us to achieve pulse-periodical generation in the 0.1 - 2 kHz range of pulse repetition rate with pulse duration from 0.2 to 5 ms. The beam modulation depth was adjusted by control voltage amplitude and could reach 100%.