Investigation of the gas composition in sealed-off rf-excited CO2 lasers

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The CO2 decomposition caused by a transverse rf excited discharge has been investigated in a waveguide laser with a square bore in alumina and in a slab waveguide device formed by electrodes of various metals. The discharge was sustained in a 3He:1N2:1C02 +5 % Xe fresh gas mixture at a pressure of 100 mbar. As shown by spectroscopic measurements in the discharge of the square waveguide the equilibrium of the CO formation is attained within 0.3 s at a rf power density of 71 W/cm". The attendant steadystate CO2 decomposition degree of 52 % was determined with a mass spectrometer taking the gas sampies from the gas bllast volume. The addition of 1-2 % hydrogen to the gas mixture reduced the CO2 decomposition and enhanced the laser output power by 25 %. Measurements on the slab waveguide showed that the CO2 degradation depends on the type of electrode materials. For aluminium the observed CO2 decomposition degree of 45 % did not alter remarkably with pressure and rf power density in the range of 70-150 mbar and 50-120 W/cm3, respectively.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: