The NRL One Kilojoule CO sub 2 Laser.
Abstract
This report describes an Ultra-Violet preionized, CO2 laser head developed at NRL for use in plasma production experiments. A 1000 Joule CO2 laser, consisting of four of these heads is to be used with a 100 J ND-glass laser to produce a large, moderately warm plasma (N = 3 x 10 to the 19th power ions, T approx 50 eV), which is to be studied in a variety of magnetic field geometries. The 3.5 liter TEA CO2 laser when connected as an oscillator followed by three amplifiers, produces one Kilojoule pulses of 10.6 micrometer radiation. The pulses consist of 70 Nsec, FWHM, initial spike followed by a 1.0 microsecond tail. The spike contains 30% of the laser pulse energy and it attains a peak power of 4.3 GW corresponding to a gas mixture of 1:1:8 (C02:N:He). The firing rate is every 6.5 minutes. The area of the beam is 300 sq cm. the divergence of the laser beam is about 1.2 mrad, about 20 times larger than the diffraction limit. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA049116
Entities
People
- Joseph R. Greig
- Michael Raleigh
- R. E. Pechacek
- S. R. Rod
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory