HIGH POWER GAS LASER FOR CS/NV APPLICATIONS.

Abstract

The construction and performance of sealed-off CO2 lasers is described. Lifetimes in excess of 1000 hours have been obtained with several tubes. Powers of 60W/m and efficiencies as high as 18 percent have been obtained with N2-CO2-He-Xe mixes. The use of a self-heated nickel cathode, preprocessed with hydrogen, provides a source of hydrogen which cycles CO formed by decomposition back to CO2. The possibility that power increases previously attributed to increased relaxation of the lower laser level by water vapor may be due to the maintenance of optimum CO2 concentration by hydrogen is discussed. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1968
Accession Number
AD0839970

Entities

People

  • Thomas F. Deutsch

Organizations

  • RTX

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Carbon Dioxide Lasers
  • Construction
  • Decomposition
  • Efficiency
  • Gas Lasers
  • Hydrogen
  • Lasers
  • Maintenance
  • Vapors
  • Water Vapor

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electronics Engineering
  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Lasers