Experimental Performance of a 15 Kilowatt CW CO2 Electric Discharge Laser.

Abstract

The fabrication and initial experimental checkout of an Electric Discharge Laser (EDL) System is described. This continuous wave carbon dioxide laser extracts power in excess of 12 kilowatts routinely at an electrical discharge efficiency of 27% and a mass flow efficiency in excess of 100 Kw/1bm/sec. With the current resonator optics, the output intensity distribution is circular, uniform and repeatable to within 5%. This laser has performed over 8,000 experiments ranging from 1 to 10 seconds in duration. (Author)

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1977
Accession Number
ADA050469

Entities

People

  • D. C. Rabe

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Carbon Dioxide Lasers
  • Current Regulators
  • Electric Discharges
  • Fabrication
  • Flow
  • Gas Flow
  • Governments
  • Laser Resonators
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Optomechanics
  • Power Supplies
  • Resonators
  • Stainless Steel
  • Test Facilities

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Test and Evaluation
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Lasers